Kingdom Hearts: Artifice
by zergvsgenin
Summary: What if Kingdom Hearts was Square Enix and JUMP? How would No. XV see events? Furthermore, what role would a girl from Black Cat play in his life, and why's Gintoki tearing up the Castle That Never Was? Rated for language at times. KH-A
1. 0: Cast List

[No. 1: Xemnas, The Superior of the In-Between]  
Leader of the Organization. Though his presence is overwhelming, his power stems from control over nothingness itself.

[No. 2: Xigbar, The Freeshooter]  
A man of many secrets, he uses banter to evade questions just as he manipulates space to elude foes. A patch covers his right eye.

[No. 3: Xaldin, The Whirlwind Lancer]  
This warrior uses the wind to wield six lances in a deadly dance. He bears himself like a martial artist, but his silver tounge is the weapon to fear.

[No. 4: Vexen, The Chilly Academic]  
Everything and everyone are but subjects in the mind of this vain and brilliant scientist who uses the power of ice to bind his foes.

[No. 5: Lexaeus, The Silent Hero]  
A master of earth and physically the Organization's strongest. He is a man of few words, opting instead to express himself through actions.

[No. 6: Zexion, The Cloaked Schemer]  
An exceptional tactician, he uses his keen intellect and ability to weave illusions to manipulate those around him.

[No. 7: Saix, The Luna Divider]  
Xemnas's right-hand man and day-to-day overseer of the Organization. His usual calm is broken only by the moon, which turn him berserk.

[No. 8: Axel, The Flurry of Dancing Flames]  
Roxas and Xion's mentor within the Organization, a wielder of fire. Though he, like all Nobodies lacks a heart, he appears to enjoy the time he spends with his protege.

[No. 9: Demyx, The Melodious Nocturne]  
Best known for his lack of motiviation an easygoing attitude. When left with no choice, he puts his sitar and mastery over water to use in combat.

[No. 10: Luxord, The Gambler of Fate]  
This consummate gambler and gentleman stakes his life on the cards. Lucky for him, he uses them to deadly effect. He can manipulate time.

[No. 11: Marluxia, The Graceful Assassin]  
Armed with control over plants and unrivaled ambition, he assumes leadership at Castle Oblivion to bring his own hidden agenda to fruition.

[No. 12: Larxene, The Savage Nymph]  
Cold and brutal, she constitues the lone woman in the Organization's ranks. Lightning obeys her call, and she strikes with all its swiftness.

[No. 13: Roxas, The Key of Destiny]  
A being created from Sora. As one of the Organization's recruits, he use the Keyblade to perform a broad variety of missions to further their shadowy agenda.

[No. 14: Xion]  
Another being from Sora, though indirectly. She also wields a Keyblade and performs tasks similar to Roxas.

[No. 15: _Roman_, The Fist of the Absent Star]  
Obnoxious, loud and rude at times, but when things get serious, he's a brilliant kid. He lets his fists do all the dirty work in his missions.

[No. 16: _**?**_]  
WARNING, CORRUPT DATAFILE

-  
{Summary}  
What if Kingdom Hearts was Square Enix and Shonen Jump? How would the Organization's No. XV see events? Furthermore, what role would a girl from Black Cat play in his life, and why is Gintoki tearing up the Castle That Never Was? {OC x teenage!Eve}

EDITS:  
Many of the things you saw upon seeing the summary were, unfortunately, incorrect. It's not just KH and Black Cat, and it's more than just Humor and Romance. There's a bunch of stuff (and I almost put Ichico 100% chars in harm's way in the final versions of the chapters I'll upload) going on due to the nature of Shonen JUMP. Also, this is based on the version of JUMP in North America, so there may be some things you might not find in Weekly Shonen Jump.


	2. 1: Initial Details

Number XV. Unfitting in a strange way, he thought to himself on several occasions. This thought of his, this time, was broken by a laser nearly hitting him. A Green one, at that. Aw, shit, he thought. Him? Here? Now?

Roman was never one for extended stealth ops, especially when someone nearby has a Kaiba ready for said situations. Today's Kaiba: Allen Walker. Intel said something about some _Innocence_ thing, and I figured that we had our reason why this world's Heartless population took a nosedive. "Fuck the Keyblade," this world says. "We're 'Innocent,' and y'all can't say shit." Roman chuckled to himself with such thoughts even as lasers flew at him.

Only a few months into the job, and I'm already being messed with by someone that can kill me outright? Not my day today, especially since he ain't letting me get to the dark corridor, he thought. It's... right... friggin'... **THERE**! Roxas got a little too lucky today.

The lasers kept coming. Roman deftly ducked and weaved past them, with only one so much as burning off a lower part of the Organization's robes, which he didn't particularly like anyway. Without a word, he also ducked under a swipe of the claw that was once Allen's left arm, which by default was red and demon-y. It reminded Roman of a similar case in another world, but he couldn't remember it very well. That was a long time ago in his view. Another dodge, this time a beam sword, followed by his own attack, which was a rising uppercut which launched the white-haired boy into the air. Roman followed this up with a straight punch to the gut which sent Allen flying backwards some seven feet on his back. "Got an agenda to follow. Can't have dudes like you messing with me," Roman said to the boy named Allen, and then he stepped into the portal of darkness.

* * *

The castle of greys, whites, light-ish blues, meh, Roman thought as he sat on the bed of his room, having forsaken his hood and robes for navy blue workout shorts that reached and covered his knees supported by a green tank top. He only wore said robes on missions, never anytime else. He was surprised that none of the superiors spoke out against his tastes, especially not the man Roman figured was the leader: a dark-skinned, white haired man with a mean look on his face practically all the time.

Roman's thoughts wandered back to his designated number, fifteen. In all honesty, he saw the fourteenth, a short haired girl, so infrequently that he more often than not forgot about the poor girl altogether. Of all of them, the thirteenth, "Elixerhead" Roxas, was the one Roman saw the most. The reason for the nickname was the unusual hairstyle that Roxas had along with the unusual shape of the associated item being similar. He could have sworn that one of the other guys said, "Chocobohead." Maybe it was the sitar dude or the pirate, he couldn't remember.

Either way, he actually rarely worked with anyone else when he did have to work with someone. There was so much to do with "hearts," and such that Roman still didn't really understand a whole lot of it. All he really knew was that everyone else lacked honest-to-God emotions, and that hearts have the key to those. So the 'key' to get their hearts back was the Keyblade, used by Roxas and the younger girl of the two in the Organization. Neither of which Roman particularly liked. One was older AND a bitch, and the other kept her hair short, which was a length Roman could never quite agree with. He always preferred long haired women, even if they kept it in a ponytail, which was cause for the gambler guy to hold him back during one particular mission from glomping a particularly good looking girl with large boobs, which he normally doesn't condone of alongside flat boobs. Kurono, someone said that day.

He really wanted to head back to that world just to see her again, but given the circumstances, Roxas will the lucky little bastard to get it on. "Unlucky number thirteen," Roman's ass.

He sighed and flopped on top on his bed, looking out the window. The sky was nothing but nightime, which meant that almost anytime it were day in a world, Roman would become blind for a moment from light overexposure. A recent addition to the outside spectacle was a large, heart-shaped moon. The leader of the group said this thing to be Kingdom Hearts, formed by Roxas and the younger girl killing things. Xion! He thought. That was her name!

So in Roman's mindset, (Roxas+Xion) Killing Things = Kingdom Hearts. To him, that about sums it up. Everyone else is just security, mentoring, or recon. So which of those three did he fit in? Who knew up until a meeting first indicated by a knock on his door?

"The superior has requested a gathering. Don your robes and be there," said the calm, dark voice Roman associated with "The Werewolf," Saix.

"Okay, okay..." Roman replied. Reason number two for these uncomfortable-ass robes: meetings.

* * *

The Room of Gathering. All these elevated throne things... what's the point? Ah, the things Roman thought. Why not just have a big-ass table so that height-fearing men like me don't sometimes fall silent when they have something to say?

The superior was the one to speak first. "Brothers... Sisters... Vexen wishes to announce something. From my understanding, this pertains to what may be a new and valuable addition to our ranks. A possible Number XVI."

"Please be a girl, please be a girl, please be a girl-" Roman said inaudibly.

"Attention, all," the girly looking man below and to the left of Roman said. Vexen, he thought it was. "My research and recent missions have turned up a most unusual find. A powerful person has lost their heart recently. I do not know who this is, but I do believe searches are at hand."

"Hold on there, Vexen," the pirate said. "If we just search the universe willy-nilly, we may never find this person before they either run or get themselves returned to the darkness. That's how we missed out on girl #3 and had to take 'Mr. AtatatatatataTA' over here," he added, gesturing to Roman, who chuckled a bit before saying, "Wait, me?"

The superior, Saix and Roxas facepalmed. "Fail," Roman heard. It was a female voice. Arrogant sounding. The lightning bitch, he concluded.

"Yeah, you," the pirate continued. "Anyway, do you have at least a general idea as to where our possible recruit is?"

"Why, of course," Vexen added with a smirk. "Right in the city outside."

It fell audibly silent. A recruit? Within the normally Shadow-infested city? They must have been a survivor until now. A lonely one, at that.

"I realize that this is a shock... but they have been sighted by one of my personal survellance posts. However, she is not a... err, how did you put it, Axel?"

Axel, the red haired man with small green triangles under his eyes replied, "A zombie? I'm kind of surprised that you wouldn't know that, Vexen. You're the science buff of us, and some of the most popular zombies were brought upon pop culture by science."

"I personally think the concept of the undead is preposterous. In any case, I will conduct several lone recon missions to search for the girl. Do not be too surprised if I am absent on some days."

Roman looked up from his shoes at the mention that the new "Nobody," as the others put it, was a girl. Score one for me! He thought.

Saix and Xemnas glared at Vexen. They had good reason to: Vexen performed all sorts of odd experiments on almost anyone and anything. Just last week, he had put the Keybladers into a maze and see how fast they could do it with while Roman chased them down with a bat AND was allowed his own Kaiba to jump the walls. Thirty minutes not counting the Scout parodying.

"I must go about this task alone. Smaller groups hide easier, and what sized group performs in stealth better than only one?" Vexen added.

A frown found itself on Roman's face after that was said. Not just out of jealousy and stir-craziness, but he was calling Vexen a pedophile in his head.

"When can we expect this new recruit to be within our ranks?" Xemnas asked.

"By the end of the month, we will have our number XVI. I guarantee it."

Roman raised his hand to respond, momentarily forgetting how high up his throne was. "If you already have a general idea as to where this new girl is, why would it take so long?"

Vexen frowned, himself. "Why would I tell an imbecile like you?"

A few chuckles rose up from some of the other members. Roman gave an exasperated sigh and slumped back in his throne to ensure that he didn't fall.

* * *

[Journal Entry]  
The guys here are weird, as I believe I've already said. Vexen, however, seems to be up there on the weird scale. He's found a possible recruit right under our noses, practically, yet he projects a long timeframe for him to find her. Also, he's going alone! That shield thing of his won't be able to hold off those massive swarms of Heartless that pop out sometimes, I know it. Superior's probably gonna see that and force him to take a partner.

Adding to that, since he referred to our mystery recruit as a girl, the word "pedo" instantly comes to mind. That, and the image of a bear. A pedobear? A polar pedobear! Am I the only one scared of such thoughts? I mean, I dunno how old Vexen is supposed to be, but if he's a founding member, he's fairly aged, right? If anything, a younger member might have better relations to the possible new recruit, and not scare her off!


	3. 2: What Is Done

The next day. Unlike Roxas, Roman never kept count of the days he was there. All he really knew was that it had been around three months or so since he himself joined the Organization. For kicks, Roman tried to remember his first day in the Organization. The day the leader found him.

* * *

Nothing. Roman felt nothing. His mind was a complete blank, and all he could physically feel was grass on his back, and what he saw with blank, expressionless eyes was the blue sky, with clouds rolling by lazily. This derelict state of his prevented him from noticing the swirling portal of dark matter than materialized about two meters away, and a man wearing a hood to obscure his face stepped through. The man went directly to Roman, laying in the grass like a dead person who was never found by comrades or good Samaritans. "You. Boy."

Roman didn't reply. He continued to stare at the sky, unblinking. "You seek answers. I can give you purpose."

He still didn't reply. Grabbing him by the shirt, Xemnas heaved him into standing with one hand. This time, Roman stared at the ground. Xemnas materialized the letters of a name from thin air. The shimmering letters appearing before him and the boy. They shimmered and spun around him for but a moment before Xemnas stopped them in front of him by materializing a large glowing X. The letters were scattered somewhat by its appearance. It soon began to shake, which had Xemnas raise an eyebrow.

The X shattered, it pieces showering the ground, and the remaining letters moving into formation to spell a name. "Hm. This is interesting. A Nobody with a heart... perhaps. Or maybe..."

The letters spelled out a name now. Roman. "Something entirely different?"

For the first time he could remember, Roman looked up. "Roman."

* * *

His remembrance was shaky at best. His sometimes poor memory did nothing to allieviate the problem. He put on his robes and went out of his room to the Grey Area, where he saw Roxas, Xion, the pirate, the musician and Saix. The first ones he approached were the Keybladers. "'Sup, guys?"

"Hey Roman," Roxas said.

"Hi. Whatcha doin'?" Xion asked.

Roman had to concentrate to keep from laughing when he heard that. "Hey... what do you make of this thing?" Roxas asked, pointing to the keychain on the bottom end of the weapon.

More than once had Roman envisioned three circles, two where the top of the third, the largest, was designated as the keychain, but no such luck was found here. Instead, he saw what looked like a pirate's head, complete with the Jolly Roger hat. "I have no clue, dude. Maybe our own pirate put that there."

"Xigbar!" the pirate said.

"Pirate," the three youngest members said.

"Feh, whatever."

Next was the musician. "Hey, Vexen doing that recon thing today? You know, it makes me wonder how old he's supposed to be for some reason," he asked.

"Yeah, I know. First a rape face, now possible pedophilia? Dude's got issues."

Finally, Saix, the blue-haired man with an X-shaped scar on his face which, for the life of Roman, no one knows where he got that. "This is your mission for today. An unidentified powerful being has been detected in Youkai Academy. Team up with Roxas and Xion to find out who or what it is, and defeat it if you can find it. It may have already fled, so return to the castle only if you are sure that it is not there."

In his head, Roman partied. Youkai Academy was the world where Luxord prevented him from glomping the Kurono girl, so now he could finally get his chance to see her again! But wait... a three-person group? "So by unidentified... it could be like a Heartless or a bitch local?"

"If I understand your words correctly... yes."

"Alright, let's get this thing started already. Roxas! Xion! Get your stuff ready!"

Both looked up from their keychains. "Both of us?" Roxas asked quizzically.

"A three-man mission?" Xion asked.

"Apparently, the dude who reported something in Youkai Academy didn't know what it was. It's probably dangerous."

"Remember," Saix added as he opened a dark corridor, "Return only if you are sure there is nothing."

* * *

Vexen walked out into the streets of the City That Never Was. The dark buildings with illuminated windows stood as a point of curiosity to him. Now who's responsible for these lights? he thought to himself. It's probably a so-called "ghost."

Vexen chuckled to himself as he walked further down the street. No Heartless to worry about. Besides, they were all Pureblooded, so he could handle any by himself very well. He approached an alley where the lights were off, as it should be throughout the city. He looked above himself, then behind, and smiled. Good, he thought, No one following me.

With a motion of a hand, he produced a dark portal and stepped through it, making sure to close it in the space between there and his destination. When the other end of the portal opened up, it revealed a large laboratory of machines, chemicals storage and other things. In the center of the lab, roughly, was a large metal containment unit. Walking up to its control console, he checked its statistics. Vitals were good, growth unstunted, everything was flowing smoothly. Much work has been put into this since that boy came into our Organization, he thought. In fact, without him, this would never have come to as much fruition as it has now! "You have my thanks, Roman," he said aloud.

* * *

Pimp, my ass, Roman thought as he chucked a can at the back of a passing student's head. What's so special about you? I swear, you're no better off than that Tsuna kid.

After the can hit him, the student looked behind him, but found no one who would do such a thing. "Maybe someone just kicked it," he said.

Yup, you suck, Roman thought. As he thought that, two other students passed him, both girls. One had long, pink hair and green eyes, from what he saw, and the other looked younger and had black hair. A witch? "Did something hit you, Tsukune?" the pink haired girl asked.

"Yeah... a soda can," Tsukune replied, picking up said soda can.

He observed the strange logo on it, like an upside down heart with spikes coming out or something to that effect. "There's no brand, just this logo."

"Maybe that's someone's personal drink?" the witch girl asked. "They must be able to somehow get it into cans time after time... maybe a witch like me or a wizard?"

Next thing Roman heard was two voices asking "What did you do?" at the same time.

He turned around, and shouted when he found Roxas and Xion behind him. He also fell through the bush he threw the can from, causing another student to trip and fall. A purple haired girl with a lollipop. "Ow... mission's bein' a bitch," Roman said under his breath so no one else could hear him.

The three students rushed to help the girl who had fallen. "Mizore! What happened? And where did he come from?"

The girl replied, "He came out of nowhere, probably startled by something."

"Friend troubles," Roman said quickly before ducking into the bush again.

The pink haired girl reached into the bush after Roman ducked in, hoping to catch him. "Hold on!"

What she pulled out wasn't Roman. She pulled out Roxas, who was protesting. "Ow! Hey! Let me go! He was the one who threw the can!"

She quickly stuck him back in the bush. The next time she tried, the girl pulled out Xion. "Ouch! I have nothing to do with this!"

The girl stuck Xion back into the bush as well. "Three people in one bush? They must be better at hiding than you, Mizore!" she said to the purple haired girl, who was staring intently at the bush.

"So I take it that she's a kunoichi trainee?" Roman said, pointing to Mizore. To everyone's surprise, he was in a different bush.

The next thing everyone knew, he was pulled back into the bush by a cloaked hand. "What- dude!"

The bush then started to jiggle around and thrash wildly as three protesting voices and various violent noises came from it, some lines including, "What were you thinking!" "Dude, it's called 'expression!' Fuck lack of emotion: look it up!" "Guys! Calm down! We still have our mission to get to!"

Quickly, the witch waved a wand in the air, with a white aura surrounding the end. A gold colored pan appeared above the bush, and fell right on it, resulting in three currently unhappy Organization members who cried out. "Son of a bitch!" Roman added.

"That should do it!" she said cheerfully.

"I don't think that was the way to go about it..." Mizore said, with ice forming on her hands to make claws.

The three members fell out of the bush, with Xion on top of the boys and Roman getting out of the minidogpile first. "Okay, who did that?" he said, pointing to the pan.

The witch raised her hand happily while the others were fairly certain that something bad was going to happen. With this in mind, Tsukune had to put the witch's hand down himself. Roxas and Xion got back up on their feet as the pan disappeared into thin air, much to their surprise. "Hey, where'd it go?" Roxas asked, increduous.

"That was also me!" the witch said happily. "I may be younger than everyone else, but I'm an accomplished student here!"

"Wait, Yukari!" the pink haired girl said. "They might be human, so don't say so much!"

"Human-looking- wait, what?" Roman asked. "Oh... right. This is that academy for monsters or something. Youkai, right?"

"Yes, that's right," Mizore answered. "How did you know?"

"Well, the three of us here wanted to inquire about enrolling sometime after we've taken care of some personal business," Roman said, "See, we may look and talk like humans, and have no alternate form to speak of, but we're not actually humans. Humans have hearts."

The four of them had a stunned look. "Beings without hearts?" Yukari, the witch, asked. "So... you're heartless?"

"Let's clarify: Heartless with a capital H are something else entirely. We're what called Nobodies, with a capital N," Roman said, drawing out the letters in the air with his finger. "Hoo boy- Listen, if you want a prime example of the former, look behind you. No, seriously, you should look behind you."

The four turned around to find that a small horde of Soldiers, Air Soldiers and Turquoise Marches led by a Solid Armor had suddenly appeared, and were heading straight for them. "What the hell-" Tsukune had started, but he was interrupted by Roman, Roxas and Xion pushing through the four to the front lines.

"We got this!" Roman said behind him happily as Roxas and Xion started to fight off the smaller Heartless.

He practically jumped into the horde feet first, embedding them in a Soldier's head, promptly dissolving the entire Heartless. He delivered two quick punches to another following up with a spin kick to a March, which was sent flying towards three Air Soldiers close together, knocking them down, and flamed by Xion. Roxas practically bisected another Soldier vertically and completely pierced an Air Soldier with a thrust. He then swung the Keyblade with the Air Soldier still on it to get two more Marches who were about to attack Xion as she froze an Air Soldier and knocked down the Armor with another well aimed Blizzard. It was not her who inflicted the final blow to the Armor, but Mizore, who had threw a large volley of ice knives directly at its head. The locals soon added to the chaos in the members' favor.

Yukari set the remaining Air Soldiers on fire while Tsukune did his best to fend off a March. Mizore and the pink haired girl were finishing off another Solid Armor that recently appeared when tree roots had suddenly come out of the ground, whipping at the remaining Heartless, releasing their hearts to the skies to everyone's amazement. However, the roots stayed, now whipping at the three cloaked members and then either cut down, flamed or flat-out stomped. Roman was busy stomping the last root when something flew by him. Instinctively, he swung his right arm downwards to his side, but missed, and the object grabbed Tsukune and pulled him up to a leafless tree. "Ah shit!" Roman exclaimed.

When he looked up, he saw not an Artful Flyer or anything of the sorts, but the girl of this world he coveted so much: Kurono. "What was all that? Are you hurt?" she asked Tsukune.

"No, Kurumu. I'm not hurt. And why did you have tree roots attack them?" he said, pointing to the Organization members.

"I thought they were attacking you, too!"

"Uuh, no," Roman said. "If we were, he'd already be dead."

That was the wrong thing for him to say, since Kurumu gave him a mean look. It didn't really faze him, as he gave her a puppy dog look. "Uh... Roman? Is that the girl you were talking about that one time?"

That made everyone's head turn towards Roman, who had snapped out of his trance. "Uh... what? Oh, right. Heh, sorry." In an aside, he said to Roxas, "The only rut is the size of her boobs, actually."

"WHAT!" he shouted, which made Yukari jump. "They're too BIG!"

This led to a struggle for Roman to make Roxas shut up about men and the size of a woman's breasts, which prompted Xion to whack both boys with her Keyblade. "Guys, we still have a mission to do! That crowd didn't have our target, so we'll need to keep looking."

"Hey, remember what Saix said," Roman said, "If we can't find it, we can't find it."

All of this was said without anyone else hearing. "Well, we've checked all the areas not blocked off by anything, and it's probably huge, so we would have seen it in all this open space." "So... it's not here?" "Guess not."

The three sighed in unison as the local group of five approached them from Roman's behind. "What are you three talking about?" the pink hair asked.

"Top secret, unfortunately," Roman replied. "Need-to-know basis."

"We have to get back to where we came from," Xion added, "But it was nice of you all to help with the Heartless."

"You're welcome!" the pink hair said. "Oh, and if no one heard, my name is Moka Akashiya."

"Like a drink?" Roxas asked. The next thing he knew, he was cut off before he could say more.

Moka sighed as the left as the others had a confused look to them, though not in regards to Roxas's comment. "He's not the only one to ask something like that..."

* * *

[Author's Notes]

Youkai Academy - My name for the Rosario + Vampire world.


	4. 3: Further Details

"Yeah... the search was a bust," Roman told Saix back at the Grey Area in the Castle.

"Odd... Xaldin reported a huge surge of energy from that world."

"So he was the one who filed in the mission?"

Saix nodded and closed the corridor with a wave of his hand. As he did, Vexen walked into the Grey Area, unscathed unlike Roman's earlier gamblings save for a small rip on his left shoulder. "And you, Vexen?"

"Not today, I'm afraid. However, it seems that there is a dearth of the Heartless that normally inhabit the streets. The only resistance I met which resulted in this-" He pointed to the rip, "Was in front of the Skyscraper."

"Oh, don't tell me that we have to find another Leechgrave," Roman griped, adding, "'cept for that one world, with the 'Innocents.' I personally think that we should leave that world alone."

And with that, Saix shoved him across and out the Area. A loud crash could be heard accompanied by various farm animal sounds, particularly those of chickens, and the shouts and complaints of Demyx, the musician as Roman calls him at times. "Noooooooo! Man, I worked really hard to get those!"

"Oh, good lord," Saix said.

* * *

"Why the hell are you smuggling chickens?" Roman asked Demyx while holding one of his own. "I don't think this technically counts as work."

"Actually, it does!" he replied. "Well, sort of. I was shoehorned into saving them when a bunch of Heartless came and started attacking! Also, there was this white chick which kicked a Large Body into the sky!"

Roman gave Demyx a confused look at the chicken flapped its wings in protest and flew out of his arms only to fall to the ground and run off.

"Uh... so you were doing recon... and then Heartless threatened someone's chickens... and you left a Caucasian girl take care of them. That makes a whole lot of sense."

"Well, it's not that much better than the world itself," Demyx added as he stuck a chicken in a nearby Sorcerer's box. "It's what happens when some world's modern times have illegal sex with another world's feudal times!"

"Samurai on motorscooters?"

Demyx paused for a bit after his seventh chicken (there were, appropriately enough, thirteen) to think about it. "Well, that's one way to put it, I guess."

Roman sighed and went on to catch the rest of the chickens before they either ran off into someone's room or jumped off a high place, which there were plenty of in the castle for some reason. After catching all the chickens, the three of them (counting the Sorcerer) found themselves back in the Gray Area, where Vexen was writing various equations down on a piece of paper, which was one of several in a quarter-foot stack. Roman could barely hear his muttering above the occasional clucking of the captured chickens. "Maybe...no, that would kill her. Perhaps...yes, note tha... hm. That's odd. Oh well."

"Ooooookay then. Creepy," Roman said as he placed the chickens in the dark corridor along with Demyx. Suddenly, a bokken flew through the portal, narrowly missing Vexen and his papers, then spiraling around to be caught single-handedly by Axel. "Jeez, that's what they give you in that world for returning a bunch of chickens?" He looked at the inscriptions on the sword's handle. "Lake Toya... never heard of it." With that, he threw the bokken like a spear into the corridor before it closed.

Everyone present, save for Vexen who resumed his equation working, clapped their hands as enthusiastically as beings without hearts could. Roman clapped extra heartily, much to Saix's observations.

* * *

The laboratory again. Vexen went around the lab, pouring chemicals into tubes seemingly embedded in machines, following his equations from earlier that night. He also went back to the control console in front of the large metal unit to check vitals frequently. Still good. No faults in the equations. He then went to add one last ingredient before he left. From a storage cabinet, he took out a vial with a small amount of silver liquid. Technically, it wasn't a metal, but Vexen still wanted to be careful with its introduction into his project's systems. Too much would kill, he thought, but too little will delay the awakening. I have to add the right amount from this day forward until the final day, or else it won't be fit for the tasks it must perform!

He touched a graphic on the display, which prompted another integrated test tube to pop out. Vexen carefully opened the vial and poured whatever contents it had into the tube, and it retracted. He put the cap back on, then proceeded to a hole in the wall designated for chemical wastes to toss the vial. "I can't risk any remaining traces to be utilized. Also, it's just plain unsanitary."

The being in the unit stirred a little, though not seen by Vexen through the metal which was actually covering glass. He took one last look at the vitals. A new reading popped up: NM Status. It read, "10% Completion."

So, Vexen thought. Nine days, not including today. He noted this on a small piece of paper which he then promptly stuck in his pocket before leaving via dark corridor. But what if I miss a day? Well, ten total days shouldn't be a bother. However, I only have so much of the substance-

Then something occurred to him in his thoughts. Wait... I only have eight vials left! Think, Vexen... don't panic... I must find a way to procure more of that substance! Well, I don't know what it is, so I'll make up a name of my own... yes. It's perfect! "Those fools..." he said aloud.

* * *

Voices... I hear voices.

Can't really tell who they are. Too echo-y. I know one's male and one's female.

Hey... what just happened? A scream? Did something just happen? Well, obviously, but...

Running footsteps... and calling out. Wait...

"Whatever you do, don't look ba-"

* * *

Roman's eyes bolted open, though not his body. He was panting as if though he had been running for a while. He sat upright in his bed and looked out the window of his room. Why do I always do that? The weather or even the time of day never changes here, he thought. He looked at his clock, which was his only reliable way of telling time in the castle. 11:01 PM. Wow, I dream easily, he thought. Only been like... three hours? I never knew, but I guess that's what happens when your memory beyond three months ago is blank.

So what was that all about? She never finished her sentence...

Without warning, Roman found a drop of water streaming down his cheek. He wiped it up with one hand, and blinked out a few more water drops from his eyes, which he also wiped away. "What the hell...?"

* * *

Next day. The world is known as Amanto Edo, which, according to Saix, is where Demyx got those chickens. Today's task: Team up with Xion and eliminate an Emerald Serenade. Roman always hated them and their tendency to never stay in one place unless frozen. That's why he valued Xion on this fine day: she had magic left as opposed to Roman, who only stocked up on currently useless Fire magics. They get too fast to be caught. "These things are bitches," Roman commented. "They don't really do much, either, so why kill them?"

"Every heart is supposed to count, they said," Xion said to him. "So why would the Heartless have such a breed? The Creepworms in Innocent Europe are one thing..."

"But these bastard things are another," Roman finished, throwing a rather large rock at the Serenade, making it spin. The same bokken from the day before also hit it into a spinning frenzy, and for the first time that ANY Organization member had seen, it stopped in place.

The two Nobodies took the initiative and rushed it while it was in place. Roman jumped off a strange creature's head to get to an awning, and from there, he jumped at the Serenade and pulled it down for Xion to finish off. They watched as its heart floated off into the sky, to Kingdom Hearts, when a Creepworm flew directly at it, pulling it down, but destroying the worm when it landed with a squish. The Nobodies cringed at the sight. "Ugh. Even without anything to clean up, that's not a pretty thing to look at," Roman said, disgusted.

"I think it's mostly the noise, though..." Xion said.

"Anyway, mission complete. Let's hit Twilight Town before the day ends."

"Well, wait," Xion said to Roman, looking around the area. "We finished in a short amount of time, less time than what it usually takes someone to take out an Emerald Serenade, so why don't we explore the city while we're here?"

"You sure about that? I appreciate our mystery help, but we better not meet our assistant for this one. Secrecy and all that."

"Oh, right..." Xion said.

Roman thought for a brief moment, but then dismissed his thought. "Nah... Twi's tower is scary enough as it is."

Xion gave Roman a quizzical look. "If you're afraid of heights, why do you always come to the tower with the three of us?"

"Note that unlike you guys, I sit away from the edge."

"Oh... got it," Xion said. She went over to pick up the bokken from the ground a few feet away. "Lake Toya... where's that?"

"Beats me. Must be the same bokken that nearly smacked Vexen last night," Roman said, laughing a little. "Man, if it actually connected..."

"Uh oh. Don't look ba- Oh, God," Xion said. When she did, Roman looked at her as if though she reported the worst news possible.

However, realizing it was Xion, he regained his composure and asked, "What is it?"

"You of all people don't want to know..." she replied weakly. "I'm gonna hurl."

She stumbled over to a nearby trashcan and lifted the lid. However, she found a silver-haired man crouched in there. "Hey, this one's taken. Wait a minute; you're not going- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! What the HELL!"

Roman facepalmed and walked past the stomach-sick Nobody to the dark corridor. Curious to what had her disgusted so much, he turned around before he entered the portal and Xion walked feebly in. What he saw made him hurl his small breakfast of a package of peanut butter cracker sandwiches in the dark space between worlds.

* * *

[Journal Entry]

Yeah, I threw up. A): I saw something that'll take a lot of yuri to unsee, and B): I threw up in the dark space between worlds! I wonder if anyone else will find that. I really hope not, because having to mop up hurl in the midst of shadow matter doesn't sound like an affair for the already weakened stomach.

Also, last night's dream was really odd and surreal. Nothing to see, really, and what I heard was mostly unintelligible, save for the very last sentence, which wasn't even finished for some reason. Maybe it's a past thing coming back to me. In all honesty, it's about time, but what about other parts I forgot? I've got a big-ass blank where anything before three months ago should have been, and it's really starting to mess with me on a minor, yet secretly important level. Wait, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Great, now I'm writing crazy shit. Thanks, Sandman.

* * *

[Author's Notes]

Amanto Edo - My name for the Gintama world.


	5. 4: Cards and a Cat

"Vexen requests chemicals from this new world. Team up with Luxord and find the chemical on the picture here."

Saix held up a picture of a small vial. It was barely the size of a thumb, and there was a small amount of silver liquid within. "Wait, let me see if I got this correctly. Vexen wants us to get some freaky chemical from a recently discovered world? For all we know, that's mercury, and I thought we already had that in the castle," Roman said.

Luxord also expressed curiosity in the mission. "I agree with our boy here. Luck may not find herself on our side for this mission, and the exact location of the chemical may be heavily guarded. I trust the boy's abilities to fight, but neither of us may have the kind of strength to get past what may come at us."

"That is the only mission I have today," Saix said.

"Well, if we're going to be robbing someone, make it more than just me and Luxord," Roman said. "Fists and cards by themselves won't do much."

"The request is not to hunt hearts."

"I realize that, but maybe this new world's utilized a way to bend Heartless to their will while keeping their own hearts intact. That, or the locals have all sorts of tricks up their own sleeves," Roman said, thinking back to a time when he participated in a martial arts tournament to destroy a Darkside, only to be beaten to it by a "saya-jin." "Trust me, I'd know."

"Do not use that tournament OR Innocent Europe as an excuse," Saix said. Roman puffed out a breath of exasperation.

"In any case, why is Vexen unable to go himself? Is he scouting that city again?" Luxord asked.

"No. He is already on his own mission with Xion to collect hearts," Saix replied.

After saying that, Saix waved his hand to form a dark corridor to the new world. "Take the picture. The vials may not be the same."

Gee, thanks, Roman thought. That oughtta be helpful.

* * *

Rain again, Train Heartnet thought. It's been raining an awful lot these past weeks, huh? Also, there's been no shortage of these weird shadow creatures or whatever they're supposed to be...

World news reports have been filled recently with news stories of missing persons, or eyewitness accounts of murder with no body to clean up, because it appears to dissolve after something resembling a cartoon heart leaving them upon attack by strange creatures. Many of them bore something akin to a black heart crossed by spiky red vines. These were the easiest of the creatures to point out, but sometimes the hardest to dispose of. Others, they bore no "emblem," yet still posed a big problem. In either case, Train had wasted a lot of ammo taking them out. They're not Chronos experiments, I take it, he thought. So why do I bother?

He pondered this as he walked the sidewalk under a black poncho, a rather appropriate color for the man known as the "Black Cat." He has had his own experiences with an organization, the Chronos Numbers. It's a past he would rather not talk about, as he was bleak and unsmiling during his years with the numbers, as XIII.

A hooded man and teenager watched him, walking on the opposite side in the opposite direction. One would have heard the teen ask, "That's not one of ours, is it?"

"It doesn't seem to be," the man replied. "He doesn't have the look of our robes and hoods, does it?"

"Guess not. Still, I'd like to see how Roxas'd react. Anyway, let's follow these areablocks."

The man nodded in agreement. "Indeed. It would seem that luck is following us today in spite of the dreary weather."

Train heard all of this, however. Areablocks? I don't see anything that could keep a person out, he thought. Other than closed doors, though. There must be more, he thought. Train followed the two hooded figures though the streets of the city, careful not to alert them of his presence. He did so by watching how hard his feet hit the ground, especially around puddles. He also kept a fair amount of distance, ready to duck out of view of necessary. However, he lost sight of the figures in an alley.

They were there one second, then they just up an vanished, Train thought, scratching his head under an awning. How'd they manage that? Unknown to him, the two had taken a shortcut through the building he was in front of and went out the back door.

* * *

"Hoo boy... this may get sticky," Roman said.

The building he and Luxord faced was an old, three story building. It was fairly strong looking, but it was apparent that time had been whittling away at it, with rust, peeling paint and plant vines growing on the walls visible. The wooden front double doors were still there, but a dark reddish brown. In its time, it would have been red. The building was taped off at its entrance gate, which had now rusted. Roman was very tempted to see if he could kick the gate in and see what happens. He was always like that: doing things for the sake of seeing results.

"Yes... once we actually get in," Luxord said, producing a card from his sleeve.

He slipped the card into the crack between the two halves of the gate, cutting the tape at the same time. The two Nobodies then stepped back a few feet. Nothing happened. "Intresting."

"You know what? Fuck this shit," Roman said as he stepped foward much to Luxord's chagrin and got to kick the gate.

Instead of it swinging open, the gate broke off the hinges and fell foward and on the ground. Instead of a clang, there was a wet splat against the mud and water. "Wow. You were right about luck."

"Well, I suppose that's another way to take advantage of it," Luxord said, stepping past the fallen gate and to the door.

He opened the door, expecting creaking. Instead, it opened up smoothly... right up until it, too, broke its hinges and hit the floor with a loud, but not outside-audible thud. The door he opened rested against a wall on the opposite side. "Oh," he said.

"Uh... okay," Roman said. "I'll go with that," he added as he dashed into the building with Luxord following, but in a less manic manner.

Inside, it was practically on par with the skies of the World That Never Was as far as darkness. At least, that applied to the areas in which the light from outside couldn't get in. Roman exhaled a breath as he took off his hood along with Luxord. The two then proceeded inside, to the left hallway with little sound save for the sound of their footsteps echoing against the abandoned walls. As Roman said back on the streets, they followed the trail of blocked areas through a simple maze of halls, false alarms, the occasional downed door and stairs. They even found a chest, and then continued through until they reached a door not blocked off. "This must be the room in question. Easier than expected," Roman commented.

"Indeed. Lady Luck is treating us especially well today, don't you agree?" Luxord asked, opening the door.

Roman expected to see dusty equipment, but he was met with dust protected things. The sinks, the cabinets, the microscopes, everything seems to have been preserved for future use by scientists who would never again walk the halls of the building. Obviously, the protection measures were covered in dust. One microscope's dust cover was home to a cockroach, which Roman didn't hesitate to stomp and overstomp on. Another, a lizard which Roman let run. He even opened a window in the hallway to let it out. Luxord wasn't without his own nasty surprises. The storage cabinets found themselves with more than a few rats, which he shooed off with three cards in hand. One rat even jumped at him, making him swat it off his robes with a card. "Nasty things, rats."

Finally, the two found the cabinet with the vials. Unlike what Saix had said, the vials were more-or-less identical to the provided picture. A device in Roman's pocket beeped. He pulled it out and looked at its display. "Mission complete, but only to silver level. How many of those things are in there?" he asked.

"Two. I'm actually growing suspicious of our own luck," Luxord said as he slipped another vial into the same card he put the first one in.

"100%. Now let's roll before more roaches come by."

And yet, just when he said that...

* * *

Train could hear the shouting from outside, mainly because the window on the seemingly abandoned research building was open. The loudest one was a younger voice, which added an assortment of vulgar words followed by loud crashing, stomping, and one explosion. Jeez, these robbers don't handle any chemicals well, do they?

He laughed to himself upon thinking that, and then saw the culprit responsible rushing out the door and across the hall. A black haired teen with oval glasses followed by a light haired man who seems to have shaved his head and sporting a beard. Halfway to the middle of the building, Train saw the teenager come to a screeching halt as his eyes went wide as he looked slightly down. Without thinking, he jumped out the window after a brief moment of deliberation. He hit the ground with an "Augh!" and a splash.

The older man followed, also with an "Oof!" and a splash. "Well, better wet than muddy."

"Hell, better wet than swarmed by roaches. Fuckers..."

Train hid at the entrace gate, which seemed to have fallen foward like something hit it from his side. The same two figures he saw walking the sidewalk earlier ran out and back onto the sidewalk, hooded as they were, obscuring their facial features. However, he could tell which was was which. What were they there for? Obviously, they didn't seem to get what they wanted, he thought. Or, maybe they did and that was just their "triumphant" exit.

He decided to follow them. To him, they were more men of Creed, which made Train tense up and run with increased resolve. He took out his gun, Hades, and ran off after them, the Roman numerals for thirteen on Hades gleaming in the streetlamp lights.

* * *

"Hey, you hear someone else's feet?" Roman asked as they ran in the direction of the corridor, which was still a ways off, tucked into an alley.

"What?" Luxord asked.

"There's me, you and someone else, I think. Maybe I'm going crazy."

Just to be sure, the two stopped. They listened for delaying footsteps, but there was nothing. "Coulda' sworn there was another set of feet..."

"Perhaps that's not an issue to tend to right now. We need to RTC as soon as possible, before someone catches us. I'm afraid that our luck is on the verge of running out right now."

Better hope it hasn't already, Roman thought.

To be sure, Roman looked behind him to see if anyone was there. Nothing. Just a black cat with yellow eyes. It seemed to be meowing in the general direction of an alley some distance away from him, as if though it noticed something. Roman took no more time to investigate, however, as he resumed running.

It was only two minutes until they reached the dark corridor. Roman's lungs never really held out for such long stretches of running, so he was struggling to catch his breath. "Hey... Luxord... think it's possible... for Nobodies to *whew* have health problems?"

"Perhaps. What do you speak of?"

"Asthma, maybe," Roman said, adding a cough at the end. "I think I should go first so I can catch my breath..."

With that, he stepped into the portal. Luxord was about to when he heard a loud ricochet against a trash can. He turned around and found a person holding a uniquely designed gold, grey and black revolver, aiming it at him. "Kept hearing things about luck from you in particular," he said.

"Correct. It's a fickle thing, able to save or kill. In any case, I am sorry to inform you that I have to return to my home base. I have sensitive material to deliver."

Roman suddenly poked his hooded head and an arm out the portal after Luxord had said that. "I got it."

Luxord handed the vials of the chemical, now out of a card, to Roman, and he retreated back into the swirling portal with little trace. "What was that?" the person asked.

"To be honest, no one there really knows, and neither do I," Luxord replied, shrugging, and stepping into the portal himself backwards.

"Hey! Wait!"

* * *

But Train was too late. The hooded man was already gone, yet the portal remained. He decided to make a dash for it to see if he could follow him, but the portal vanished. Why would they retrieve something, he thought, if they don't know what it is? Neither them or their superiors? And they didn't seem to know me for all I know...

He holstered Hades underneath his poncho again and stepped out of the alley. Maybe this goes further than Chronos, he continued, And into something more. More of what specifically, I don't know.

The street had about a quartar inch of water on it. Man, this city doesn't like to let go of its water, does it? Train walked some distance until he found himself surrounded by a small group of creatures, none bearing the strange emblem. Quickly, he took out Hades and swiftly shot five out of the seven in the head with the remaining bullets, and reloaded two more bullets. It was all he really needed. He proved this by quickly dispatching the other two, reducing them to a momentary black-purple mist that soon evaporated. Without warning, an emblem creature appeared from near thin air. This one didn't look too bad. It's got a helmet and claws, but not a whole lot more, Train thought as he promptly loaded another bullet and shot at its head. The bullet ricocheted off, however, prompting him to load a special Burst Bullet. Firing that one, it overpierced the helmet and launched the creature backwards an inch, something Train didn't see coming, and it disintegrated upon landing. A heart flew up into the air from where it was.

He remembered further reports. Some people also witnessed hearts turning into the creatures themselves, or particularly cruel people radiating with a dark aura and being left alone by the creatures. Perhaps they were linked to these hearts, or maybe people's behaviors. So maybe these things are linked to anything considered by God-knows-what to be evil? There were also reports of light grey creatures sighted around the "death" site of VIPs of all sorts. "This just gets weirder and weirder..." Train said to himself.

* * *

"Okay, that was a little too close for comfort from what I saw," Roman said as he took off his robes and hung them to let them dry. "That would have turned into something ugly, considering the presence of a friggin' gun."

"But Luxord could have blocked those easily, right?" Xion asked from the other side of the door. "Well, if he can react quick enough."

"That's our big ticket problem: reaction time. At that range, there's no way Luxord could block as soon as the trigger was pulled. Oh... and I could have sworn that I saw the number XIII on the gun."

"Um... I don't know how to use a gun properly," Roxas said, also from behind the door.

"I wasn't suggesting it was you. S'probably a local mistakening us for some other dudes."

"Any idea as to what that was you two got?" Xion asked, possibly trying to change the subject.

"Actually, no. In fact, it didn't seem like even Vexen knew its name. All he had was a picture to give us, and that was it."

Roxas and Xion looked at each other, confused. Why would anyone be sent on a semi-wild goose chase?

* * *

Vexen put the next vial of the substance in. Day 2, he thought. 20% completion. Maybe importing wasn't the best idea, because some of this I can't begin to understand...

In all honesty, he found the graphic to activate the test tube purely by luck. Now he was looking for one to do away with that accursed metal cover and see what exactly it was he was working on. Three months... and the curiosity has to strike me now, he thought.

He had no such luck for a time. One graphic emptied out a fairly insignificant amount of water, which he saw through the grated/glass floor go away from the cylindrical containment unit. Another activated a trap door he nearly fell through. After about twenty different graphics, he found what he was looking for. The metal covering lifted up to reveal a clear glass inner tube. In that unit, behind the glass, was his project. "Oh... I was right at the meeting," he said, touching the graphic again to resummon the metal covering, which he saw to be an inch thick. Not a shame... not a celebratory thing. I just happened to be right.

Now, about the chemical, he thought. Given the new vital, perhaps I should call it Compound NM. "Yes... even if I'm a little clueless myself."

He examined the label on it. "Chronos," he said aloud. Afterwards, he discarded the vial. Maybe that was one of the two vials Luxord and the boy retrieved. The main reason why the boy was so crucial was primarily for his memories. Not that Vexen had the girl, Namine, extract any. He merely sampled them (as much as he could, due to their absence to the boy) and formed a genetic map. The rest, he honestly winged.

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- Suggestions for a name for the Black Cat world are greatly appreciated. Right now, I'm working with Sweeper's Field, but that sounds a little weird to me. Credit will go to whomever brings up the best name.

- No, I will not tell you if that thing Vexen's working on is Eve. For all you know, he's doing that AND searching the city as he said. Eve may very well be in the city...


	6. 5: Senseless Dreams

This void again... Same voices from before.

Again, they're unfamilar sounding. Too distorted. Too echo-y. And again, I only know the genders.

...Hm. A delay, but not in the voices. In the action. By now... there. Now we're into the familar bits.

Footsteps are less echo-y than before. Hey, I see something. ...it's gone.

"Whatever you do, don't look ba-"

**SHIT**! What the-

* * *

Roman awoke with not a bolting open of the eyes this time, but with an escape of breath, like something hit him. However, it wasn't necessarily because of waking up; something actually did hit him. In his blurred vision, due to both natural eye sight and grogginess, he only saw a silver stick hovering over his chest, which then receded to his left. Taking his glasses from the nightstand in the wall, he put them on and looked in that direction. Roxas had just dispelled his Keyblade. "Dude... was that necessary? Granted, I woke up from the dream, but to hit me the minute it ended?"

"Well, you overslept today," Roxas said. "But I wouldn't worry. I only woke you up for the fun of it. Today's vacation, Axel said."

"Vacation? As in, no official work for today?" Roman asked, getting out of bed and cracking his neckbones. "Oy, dude..."

"I guess that sums it up," Roxas said. "Any plans for today?"

Roman thought for a moment, never really taking vacations into consideration. He found plenty of enjoyment in his work, particularly combat tasks. Unless he had an emo phase for whatever reason (being a Nobody, that was impossible), he didn't really have a need for a vacation. "Erm... no. Zip."

Roxas tilted his head down in disappointment. "Seriously? Nothing planned?"

"Bupkus. If anything, I'll just waste time in holo-missions and kick some serious ass."

"You really do find enjoyment in fighting, don't you?" Roxas asked.

Roman put on a pair of loose leg jean pants ("more bag, more man") supported by a light blue t-shirt, and walked out the door. "Like you, I need something to hold on to. I found fighting pretty exciting, so I hold to that for now."

Roxas remained in the room in thought. "He has action, I have the time that I remember. What's supposed to define who you are?"

"Less emo, more man," Roman said from across the hall.

* * *

In the Grey Area, Vexen moped in one of the chairs, with a stack of papers now half an inch tall. A vacation, they say, he thought. Is this some excuse for me to keep an eye out? So far, it seems that no one truly knows what I am doing, and for all they know by looking at me, they must think that the "recruitment" of No. XVI is not faring well. That accursed boy will also accuse me of that "pedophilia" I once heard of! I bear no association to youth! Besides, how can those without hearts be considered "pedophiles?"

Taking his stack, he walked out of the Grey Area, unaware that he was the only one in there all along. He walked out of the castle and back into the streets. He found himself a different alley to form his portal, to prevent detection by Xigbar. I mustn't be predictable!

As before, he checked the vitals, adding any chemicals if need be. He also added his daily dose of the newly deemed Compound NM into the machine as scheduled. 30%. He decided to take a second look at the vial. How much of this is actually NM? If it's pure, I may as well destroy the girl myself.

Taking an unused vial, he drew a small amount from it and placed the sample into a machine which, unlike most of the others, was domestic. It took a minute for it to scan the Compound, but it gave the results on a screen near the test area. "10% unknown substance. 90% water or other vital substances."

Vexen's jaw went slack. Mostly water! I may as well put the rest of the vials in right now! But wait... what will happen as far as the systems if I do that? Also, there are some things I want to adjust before she awakens. Besides, I have all the time in the month right now.

He went to the containment unit's console once more to see the physicals of the girl. The metal covering went up, and the clear glass was exposed. "Hm... white hair? That may be interesting to see. No eye color known... Teenager. Oh no," he said, suddenly thinking back to Roman. "He'll make advances! So what will drive him off?"

In his head, Vexen made a list of things Roman said he found attractive in a woman (he wondered how he could find those, given all their lacks of hearts): long hair, fair bust (Vexen figured this to be bra size B to C), slim or normal figure. Which of his dislikes to cater to, I wonder? Short hair? Large or flat bust? Stout figure?

And then he promptly hit his head against a wall for thinking of doing such things.

* * *

"No. I don't know how to tune sitars," Roman said as he passed Demyx, manically and desperately pointing to a broken string on his sitar.

See? That's what you get for being a lazier ass than other people I've seen, Roman thought. Stupid bitch.

The next thing he knew, he was wearing a black short sleeved hoodie and the hall had fallen pitch black, save for him. He heard the voices again, with the same distorted quality as the dream he had earlier. The same timing. The same scream. This time, his body seemed to move involuntarily. He struggled to stop, but he kept going without stopping. His head looked back, but he couldn't make out what he was looking at before his head moved back forward. "And whatever you do, don't look ba-"

A gunshot. Roman's nerves all fired at the same time, yet he kept going. He stopped and turned around. Exactly what the voice didn't want. He saw only Xion, with a confused look on her face. Roman was once again wearing his blue t-shirt he had put on, and the halls were lit again. It happened without warning. No sounds, no eerie chorus climax, nothing. Just a sudden cut back to reality.

"What were you doing?" Xion asked. "Did a roach get in to the castle?"

"Hell if I know," Roman replied, looking around him just in case she was right. "One minute, I'm telling Demyx off. Next minute, I'm in a dream with my eyes wide awake. Is Zexion in the area?"

Xion shook her head. "He's in the library."

"Ah," Roman said, heading back down the hallway towards the simulator room. "And you're following me... why?"

"I'm still a little curious. What did you see?"

"Nothing, really. Just a change of clothes for me, and that was it."

Xion looked puzzled. "Just a change of clothes?"

"That, and everything suddenly got dark. No warning, I just find myself in a dream I was having earlier when Roxas rudely woke me up the first time around. It's not the first time overall, though. I had a similar dream the night before, but it was less than helpful, like most dreams."

"Maybe it's part of a sequence? I don't know."

Roman grunted in assent as they reached the simulator. Entering the desired mission, Roman reviewed its specifications. "Team up with Xion and travel to Amanto Edo to collect hearts. Further intel reports that a small group of Zip Slashers and an Emerald Serenade were detected."

"Wanna go?" Roman asked.

Xion nodded, and the two stepped through the square wall portal and into replaying memories. Particularly of the day Xion threw up in the talking trash can.

* * *

"I can't believe that girl threw up on me that day..." Gintoki said, reading the newest issue of JUMP. "I guess these fanfictions do weird things to people's stomachs."

Kagura slept on the couch across from where Gintoki lay, tired from walking Sadaharu after he decided to chase a group of squirrels throughout Edo. She had one hand on a rice cooker which was on the table to ensure that no one stole it, especially not those odd creatures that a few clients now had been wanting destroyed on the spot. Also on that day, somebody tried to steal their kill, which Kagura saved with a prompt hurling of a worm looking thing. There was also the question of the hearts rising to the sky. What was that all about? Is this some crossover game with a lot of OOC? Honestly, Gintoki Sakata was a little afraid to ask, since when he did, strange things tended to happen.

"Here's some more tea, Gin-san."

"Thanks, Rinoa," he said to the black haired girl. She was a fairly recent addition to the group, but a useful asset. Not only did she and Kagura add visual appeal to their group, but a recent influx of fairly wealthy male clients came by, though still spaced out in time as usual. Also, she knew a thing or two about magic, healing Gintoki in the event of a motorscooter accident or washing him down with water after being hurled on.

"By the way... I heard all sorts of commotion from all over the city. Did Sadaharu try to go off his leash again?" Rinoa asked, taking the tea tray with her to the kitchen.

Gintoki, distracted by JUMP, only pointed to Kagura with his pinky. "Oh. I see," Rinoa said when she got back.

Ringing was heard at the front door. "Someone's here," Rinoa said.

"If it's a magazine guy, just shoo him off by saying that we're already subscribed."

"O...kay. Do we have any actual subscriptions? You know, you could subscribe to that JUMP thing you like so much."

"Tried that. First few volumes of my subscription were ruined and the bonus stuff removed. Better to buy them yourself."

Rinoa slid the door open to find a hooded man on the other side, his facial features completely obscured. "Oops, sorry. Wrong building."

The next time she answered the door, she promptly slew a creature with a razor sharp discus she had recently bought for such purposes. The third time yielded a man in cobalt blue armor. "Uh oh. Sorry, wrong door."

"Sheesh, give it a rest, will ya? We're already subscribed to your magazine already," Gintoki said, coming to the front.

"What? Since when to people go door to door to ask for subscribers to a magazine?" the man asked, and he left without much else to say.

"That was fairly odd," Rinoa said, closing the door.

"VENTUS!" Kagura suddenly cried out, bolting awake and letting go of her rice cooker.

Sadaharu also woke up, but more slowly than his owner. "Did somebody fart?" Gintoki asked, knowing that Ventus is associated with wind.

"No..." Kagura said. "I dreamt that I was this really attractive woman with some sort of giant key thing. There were two other guys, Terra and a kid named Ven."

"See, that's why you leave my PSP alone. You start catering to the chapter's title," Gintoki said, pointing up, and with Rinoa completely clueless.

"I haven't touched your damn PSP!" Kagura retorted, rushing up to Gintoki's face. "I have my own PSP!"

"So why don't you use it, then?" Rinoa asked. "If you have your own PSP, you should leave Gin-san's alone."

"Movies," Kagura replied. "I tried a UMD game, and it self-destructed. A downloaded game had a virus."

The two other freelancers facepalmed. "Wow," the first man to come said from outside, inaudibly. "They suck. And I thought Roman did because of that nickname he's got for me. This really is turning out to be a fun vacation."

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- White haired experiment? **Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun**!

- Sensible people rejoice... there is no Gintoki x Rinoa. I put Rinoa in because I like her and I don't know Shinpachi that well, so if I had to dispense someone for KH - Artifice, he was it.

- 1st Guy: Xigbar. 2nd Guy: some random Heartless. 3rd Guy: Church from Red vs. Blue! In MY non-Keys writing!


	7. 6: Diaries are Girly

[Roman; Entry 1]

Saix gave me this... thing. A diary. DIARY. Hell no, he did not. I may as well scratch out the word "diary" on the front and replace it with "journal!" Real men write journals. But why do I remember that? I can't remember how to talk correctly, yet I already know what a "real man" does. Doesn't that need something? Hell if I know. And what's with these words I'm using? It's all sorts of confusing right now.

Besides, I have this odd memory that journals aren't day to day. Not all days have something interesting, you know, so there's really no need to document every single little day that passes. If anything, you won't want to remember certain days because—what?

* * *

[Roxas; Diaries are girly?]

Roman says that diaries are mostly for women, but he doesn't really know why. Even when he did, he needed a piece of paper to tell me. That, and I couldn't read some of his letters at first glance. In contrast to me, he's pretty lively for a new Nobody, because he's already communicating with others semi-fluently. He's still kind of a zombie in his actions, though.

Xemnas also said that he was particularly special, but how? There's me and Xion, so could we have a third Keyblade?

* * *

[Roman; Keywhat?]

The fuck's a Keyblade? From what I've seen from Roxas, it's some big-ass thing that you whack those Heartless things with, amongst other tasks (whacking people, lol). So is it a sword or a key?

Well, here's my theory: it's a sword, but it acts like a key in very specific situations. Another theory is that it's a key all the time, and when you stick it in things, it unlocks their death. That's about all I have. Where'd I get that, anyway?

* * *

[Roxas; I Just Noticed]

Everyone's name has an X in it... but not Roman. Maybe he has a surname that Xemnas never gave us? That would explain why there's no X. But wait... no one else has a surname, so it wouldn't make any sense for Roman to have a surname. Also, he's talking more, but his handwriting hasn't improved much.

Maybe Zexion can help him with that.

* * *

[Roman; I Write How I Want]

Everyone's been complaining about my handwriting lately, because I've been using random pieces of paper to get things through. First of all, I'm kind of in a hurry to get my message through because I want to kick something in a mission that Saix, the X-face has. Secondly, I'm a near derelict for memories! I guess that wouldn't include a personal dictionary, since I'm writing this out and I understand what many of the words people use mean both in written things and verbal conversation. See? There I go.

Basically, I write how I write, and I don't give a significant shit. Let's end it at that for now.

* * *

[Roxas; Whoa!]

Roman was talking a mile a second today! One week, he barely spoke, like me, and now he, for the most part, won't stop talking! Is this a good thing? I certainly don't remember talking so much within a week, myself. Saix practically pushed him through the corridor so he didn't have to listen to him so much.

He also doesn't have a weapon like everyone else. He just goes in and uses his hands and feet. Talk about going into battle feet first.

* * *

[Roman; Xion]

Number fourteen… Xion. I rarely see that girl at all, and she just decided to take her hood off today. However, Roxas claims that she's had her hood off for a while now. So who's crazy here: me or Roxas? Jeez, this X sound in everyone's name is starting to wear on my vocal chords, especially since a few days ago.

All I was doing was stating my mind, and Saix shoved me through that dark portal thing. Is there really something so wrong with stating my mind on certain subjects?

* * *

[Roxas; Huh?]

The hearts that come out of the Heartless Roman defeat look like the ones Xion and I get. Why is that? Is that what Xemnas meant by particularly special? Maybe not, because when I let him hold the Keyblade, it disappeared and it came back to me.

The same thing happened when Xion tried. What's going on?

* * *

[Roman; Bunch of Wimps]

Who needs a weapon? I have my own right hand, and he's got a brother on my left. I swear, they don't know what it's like to just punch one of those Heartless things straight in the face, or kick them and see how far they go before they hit something. Especially not flower man.

By the way: James from Team Rocket called. He says that he wants his rose back.

* * *

[Roman; Bitch!]

Who put that blonde chick in the Organization, or whatever these guys call it? She's pretty rude and derogatory, and she's got the speed to avoid a pimpslap. Oh, and she kicked me in the privates, too. Damn ho.

Also, I caught wind of a girl named Namine. Who's that? They also mentioned Castle Oblivion, a research facility, so I can guess that she's there? Who knows? I hope she has longer hair than lightning bitch and the hooded girl. Wait... what?

* * *

[Roman; Say-a What Now?]

Technically, today's mission was officially a success, but I still think I failed. I WAS supposed to get one of those Darkside things today, but it entered itself in some tournament thing. I had to kick my way to the top... and then some guy in orange comes by. He seems like a nice guy to befriend, but his kicks HURT! Also, where'd he learn to shoot energy from his hands?

Basically, I lost so he had to get the Darkside. Not a whole lot to lose, since it was the target, and it's a Pureblood or something, but it's still pretty humiliating. Did I mention Lexaeus ripped off the top part of his robes before wrestling with some crazy dude? It's mortifying just remembering it…

* * *

[Roxas; Women]

Roman was talking about women today. I didn't get a lot of it, nor did I get anything about Larxene talking about men. Roman said that the perfect woman had long hair kept down, a fair bust: cup B to C (what does that mean?), and a fair figure. He also says that curves are a big plus. What the hell?

I'm really concerned, though not for Roman specifically. I'm actually a little worried about what he'll do to US if he betrays the Organization for whatever reason. Not that he seems to want to. He seems content enough to stay, but since we don't have emotions, he may just be a ticking bomb waiting to go off.

* * *

[Roman; Women]

Tried to get Roxas to understand my view of women. He didn't get it. On the plus side, he didn't get anything the lightning bitch said about men. Less gay, more straight, dude. I'm looking at you as well, Axel.

Anyway, imagine a girl with long, healthy hair that she likes to keep down. I forgot to tell Roxas that ponytails are good too. She'd have a bosom not too big, not too small. Cup B to C ought to do it, although I can't remember what that even means, though. Her figure would also be anything but plump, though. I'll accept normal, although curves would be a big bonus.

* * *

[Roxas; ...What Did He Say?]

Roman just told me another thing he'd like in a girl. Attraction to other girls. That statement made Xion leave the room. I guess I can imagine why. I also never knew there was a word for girls who like girls, though he said that it's in the context of exclusion. However, there is one thing that I don't get: he said that he didn't like Xion too well. "Hair's too short." I don't think her hair's too short.

It's just short enough. Besides, how can anyone put on a hood if they've got a lot of hair? I swear, he's confusing to listen to at times, and it's not those random vocalizations he's been making as of late.

* * *

[Roman; Do Not Want]

What does Roxas see in that other girl? From what I've seen, her hair's short enough to be masculine, and there's not a lot of chest on her to speak of. Like… good lord. I commented that, "There's not a lot for her TO squeeze" one time. However, that ended up making her chase me throughout the castle. Who knew that an emotionless girl could be so conscious about her body? That just seems to defy all logic.

So basically, the entry title up there pretty much sums up what I think of what's-her-face. I say that because I've rarely seen her face.

* * *

[Roman; Yuri = HOT]

I just remembered something: yuri is HOT. Quick primer: yuri translates roughly(?) to "girls' love." However, no one here seems to be eligible for that, especially since we only have two girls and they don't mix very well. We seriously need more long-haired girls in this Organization, because I'm starting to flip.

What impact this is supposed to be having on me, I have no clue. I'm just starting to remember personality quirks, but nothing in regards to my past, past. I'm not artificial, am I?

* * *

[Roman; Hot Chick Ahoy!]

New world today. It was a hell of a task though: recon. I swear, it takes too much investigation to make a "breakthrough," and it took too much work and time to make the three breakthroughs to- wait. Only two! Well that could have made things a whole lot easier if someone told me earlier! Stupid bastards.

Anyway, let's get to the entry title here. There was this REALLY attractive girl in this world we went to today. Blue hair in a pony tail (light blue from what I gathered), nice figure... but the only rut I see is her boob size. Yes. Her boobs are TOO BIG. I'm not kidding. The reason why I'm not so savvy with large boobs is because I've been sent across city blocks by some woman's own pair because neither of us were looking. Damn you, "Fire Shadow!"

* * *

[Roxas; Youkai]

An academy for the non-human... does that mean that Xion, Roman and I would fit in? We don't have hearts, yet we still look and talk like humans. And what would they think when I say that we're Nobodies? They may take it literally and ignore us completely.

It's also a world of its own, so you have to wonder what else could get in other than us and the Heartless.

* * *

[Roman; Really Random Thought]

Kurono and a yuki onna (snow fairy). Together. I'm not joking. On a side note, doesn't yuki onna actually mean "snow woman?" Hell, Zexion and Vexen are confusing me again with their translations of certain things, like the "Gin Tama" incident.

I'm pretty sure that if I'm not supposed to have emotions, that my crotch shouldn't be hurting from overextension. See, this is why I rarely have my robes on outside of missions; comfort.

What function, other than keeping the wearer dry, do these damn robes serve, anyway?

* * *

[Roxas; Innocence]

Innocence? What's that? By Roman's definition, it's a sort of object or infection that allows a person to fight off evil like how a Keyblade works. So does that mean that the Keyblade would be useless?

He assures that Innocence can't unlock things, so I guess that's a start, but what about his mission? I got through way before he did, so I wonder what kept him. All he answered was, "Dude problems."

Is that supposed to be a nickname for something? "Dude?"

* * *

[Roman; That Yellow Thing]

Some yellow thing hovering a guy's head in Innocent Europe, that world where I nearly had my ass handed to me. What the hell was that? I'd say "Gilbird," but that seems way off considering the situation here. I still think it's European in a sense, Prussian specifically—wait, Prussia? What the fuck is that?

Now I've got all sorts of random names flowing into my head: Italy, Germany, France, England… and the unifying word is Europe. Damn, I'm messed up.

* * *

[Roxas; Gilbird?]

I imagine a yellow bird that would nestle itself in someone's hair, preferably silver hair. Why that bird would choose that person, and how it even got there to begin with is beyond me. The only reason why I'm writing about this is because Roman brought it up today. I also have to wonder about how much of what he's saying he actually knows about.

One minute, he's talking about something, and then he stops and asks, "What?" It's confusing.

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- You're not hallucinating: I got boob blocked by Tsunade.

Innocent Europe – My name for the D-Gray Man world. If it's a little weird, forgive me.

- Huge thanks to darkpikasama for the "James wants his rose back" line.


	8. 7: Odd Jobs Gin

[Three Days Passed]

"Vexen."

He turned around to find Saix. He stared with a look of learning intentions. "The month has almost closed. There is no word on the girl yet?"

"No," Vexen replied, turning around and walking down the sloped decline. "I assure you, we will have our girl within the month. In fact: if I do not come back with her within four days, consider me a traitor and have me eliminated."

Saix only stared. Had he been someone else, he would have raised an eyebrow. "Now if you excuse me, I have confidence to uphold."

"You are so confident in yourself that you would put your very 'existence' on the line?" Saix asked.

"It's a promise, Saix," Vexen said as he prepared to set foot on the long blue glowing bridge down to the city from the castle. "A promise to complete my work and assert my rank within the Organization," he added under his breath.

* * *

Day 6. 60% completion. Vexen walked about the laboratory, checking all the machines within, and writing down notes in regards to the imports.

I am a fellow founding member of this Organization, he thought to himself. No one should forget that. There are others, but I am the one with the superior intellect. I am the creator of much of the advances in technology they have gained.

"And furthermore..." he added aloud, as the metal covering rose into the ceiling once more to reveal the white haired girl, in fetal position as she had always been, even before Vexen first looked at her. "I am about to bring another to them."

Now, he continued in his head. About awakening her to note her eyes and possible other factors. He went to the control panel and fiddled with the controls and touch screen graphics once more. One replaced the water from days ago. Another activated the trap door once again. He noted it in his log along with the previous graphic. If I can't learn the language, I can at least know which does which. Cognative thinking.

He stuck the noting of the important and/or other found graphics under a metal plate on the terminal, so that he could quickly access it the next time he needed, which would be tomorrow. Also, I must keep this laboratory protected! I know this place, that is why I come here by dark corridor, he thought. However, to keep those unfamiliar from interfering... how to do that? Nobodies would heed their superiors, and Heartless are too unpredictable at times. He needed something more intelligent. More unpredictable. Must I hail another world?

By now, he had given up on finding a way to temporarily wake the girl, considering that he may accidently release her prematurely. He opened a dark corridor after the metal covering went down once more to veil the glass containment unit. He knew what he must do. "I have to make it as if though they are either intruders or... maybe..."

* * *

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!"

The young girl couldn't stop shaking Gintoki's hand so vigorously, he dropped his bokken and issue of JUMP. He was also shaking enough to almost accidently kick Rinoa as she passed, making her stumble and almost spill a bowl of rice Kagura had requested. On the client's shoulder was a small black kitten. It was tiny, and it seemed to match with this ball of energy giving Gintoki a concussion without actually smacking him on the head somehow.

"I can't thank you enough for finding him! Thank you so much!"

"How about you pay up and leave? I think my sense of balance is filing for divorce, and she's taking a lot of the furniture."

"And the drapes," Kagura added, having recently popped up near the front door.

"And I don't think they'll leave a last check for the rent," Rinoa finished, serving herself a cup of water.

"Sorry! Thanks again!" And the girl was off.

Gintoki stumbled over to the couch and crashed on top of it facefirst. "Ow... at least she paid well," he said, tossing the bag of money the girl had left them.

"Actually, that still won't be enough to cover the rent, I think," Rinoa said.

"It depends on how much the coins are. If they're the basic units, we are screwed. If they're high value, though..."

He opened up the bag and poured its contents onto the table situated between the couches. What the freelancers saw left them in shock. The bag was full of unfamiliar coins and balls divided into 8 sections, alternating between blue and yellow. There were also unusual green bills in the bag, rolled up or crumpled. Kagura picked up one of the balls, a larger one. "Well, we can definitely use these..." she said, pocketing the Munny ball. "But the rest of this..."

"She was a foreigner!" Rinoa remarked, still staring at the strange currency.

"THAT BITCH!" Gintoki shouted. "I OUGHTTA SHOVE THE USELESS CRAP IN HER FACE AND FORCE HER TO EXCHANGE IT SOMEHOW!"

"...Somehow," an intellectual voice said from the other side of the closed door.

"Who's that?" Kagura asked, looking to her left a little bit.

Without a word, Rinoa went to the door and opened it to find a long haired man wearing all black robes. His face suggested years of experience and wisdom, observing others and developing things off of those observations. "Hello... who are you?"

"Do not worry. I am not a bearer of paper news, nor a bearer of verbal news such as a royal announcement," he said, not stepping inside just yet. "I bear a task for you, Odd Jobs Gin."

Rinoa covered her mouth in disbelief. Her eyes went wide. "No..."

"Don't believe in him, Rinoa! 'Ladie's Four' is about to come on in a moment," Kagura said as she approached the shocked young woman and the man who put her in that state.

"You're more concerned about a television program than your welfare? A pity for the group I wished to request a task from."

Kagura was taken aback. "Friggin..."

"Hey, you're not going to stiff arm the guy? Listen, we've already subscribed to your magazine so-" Gintoki started as he headed towards the front of the small area.

"I already said that I lack paper news! I said that I want to hire you ingrates!"

Gintoki stepped back one step in sheer amazement. "Way!"

All together, the three freelancers said, "No friggin way!"

The man at the door facepalmed, shaking his head. This is Odd Jobs Gin? What a miserable pile of dog... erm, feces, he thought.

* * *

"M-M-More tea?" the black haired girl asked, handing Vexen a cup of tea, her hand shaking it.

Vexen looked at her, then the redheaded white skinned girl, and finally the silver, curly haired man. His face was one of amazement. What could cause these people to- he began thinking when the younger girl in blue spilled the tea on Vexen's crotch. Due to its heat, it was not the girl who screamed at a woman's decibel from the shock of the incident, but Vexen who screamed from the extreme pain and the fact that he was associated with ice. He always liked his tea cold (as much as a Nobody could like something).

The girl rushed to help him, but Vexen only shooed the girl off. "As I tried to express eariler," he said, straining not to keep yelling due to the continuing pain, "I have a task to give you three of the utmost importance!"

"W-Well, the thing is that we almost never get two clients within the same four days," the white skinned girl said. "That, and we just finished up another job right before you came here..."

"But look at the pay," the silver haired man said, motioning to a pile of coins in the center of a table in front of them.

While some Munny was amongst the pile, the coins didn't seem to be familiar in any capacity to Vexen. Perhaps it hailed from another world, he thought. But who would be stupid enough to pay in foreign money? Even the fifteenth boy knows that Munny is the universal currency and carries specific monies when he can.

"It's sad, really," Vexen said, "That it seems that you've been duped by a person from another world."

The three stared at him confused. "As in... Amanto?" the girl in blue asked.

"No. She is still human, but not from this Earth from my understanding."

"So she's still an Amanto?" the girl in orange-red asked, leaning on the couch opposite of Vexen.

Vexen groaned. "You know what? Just follow me outside. I must test your abilities to see if you are the correct choice for the task I plan to designate to you. And as an incentive..."

He took out a small pouch, identical to the empty one on the table and threw it to the silver haired man. He caught in with his hand not in his white coat, and tossed up in the air a small distance a couple times. He opened it and looked inside, and what he found shocked him. "...T-This is..."

The other girls moved around him to see. "All Munny!"

"Indeed. If you wish to be paid more, you must prove yourself and then fulfill the task if I deem you worthy," Vexen said, heading to the door.

He was tackled by the man and the white skinned girl in orange-red as they dashed out of the door, eager to get started. The black haired girl in blue was the last to walk out, calm and locking the door behind her.

* * *

"So what's part of the job you want to give us?" Gintoki asked the robed man. "And what's your name?"

"Is the second question so important? It is possible that, say, a hitman can take orders from a person from which they never get a name. But if you truly insist, it is Vexen," he replied.

As he said that, strange creatures appeared from thin air in a dark orb and from the ground without a sound. "Ah, the test has come to us."

"Wait... all you want us to do is kick their asses?" Kagura asked, parasol in hand.

"I would have brought my own testing, but certain circumstances prevent that," Vexen said, taking out a small notepad and pencil.

"Okay... so you just want us to kill more of these things?" Gintoki asked, one hand on his bokken with Lake Toya inscribed on the handle.

"No, THIS is merely a test of your abilities. The real task will come about if you satisfy me, so give it your all."

He looked to his left, where Kagura was standing. There was a huge white dog of seemingly indeterminate breed to her own left, which made Vexen jump a little. "What the hell?"

"That's just Sadaharu," Kagura asked, petting the person-tall dog between the ears.

"Anyway, can we get to whatever kind of test you were issuing?" Gintoki said, his bokken now resting on his shoulder. "Before anything else can show up and ruin it."

"Very well. Go forth and eliminate them, then," Vexen said, motioning towards the Heartless.

"Well, wait," Rinoa asked, having Gintoki stop in his tracks. "What do these have to do with the task? I think that if you're going to have us guard whatever it is you want guarded, you may have to provide a more diverse-"

"Just GO," Vexen said, insistent and with his eyebrow twitching.

He was growing very impatient, especially since his laboratory was unguarded and it would seem that an investigation would be launched soon. He needed to have his security NOW. By this time, the Heartless made the first move, but this proved to be a mistake as Gintoki had bisected one creature with his bokken and imbedded it in another, a smaller purple one probably intended to be a dog. Kagura promptly grabbed one that looked like a robot of sorts and swung it around as it fired lasers every which way, hitting its allies. Rinoa had brought what seemed like a thin shield, but it turned out to be a sort of discus. "Utilizes discus, like Axel's chakrams," Vexen noted.

He noted many of the battle techniques, Gintoki's wielding of the bokken like a true katana, Kagura's strength, Sadaharu's speed and ferocity, and Rinoa's spells. Vexen had taken up about five pages by the first wave of enemies, which was followed up by a second wave which consisted of a few creatures resembling ants led by one significantly larger than the others. There were also things with primitive leather-like wings like what an inventor would make for himself in a quest to fly in the air. So much glorious data!

Power, finesse, attraction, Vexen listed. It's all perfect! No one can find my laboratory now! Odd Jobs Gin, you have my eternal thanks! In his mind, Vexen shed tears of joy. However, he found himself in the unfortunate position of being behind Sadaharu, who had lifted himself up to standing by putting his front paws on Vexen's shoulders. With that, he bit the top of Vexen's head.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" He ran back and forth, trying to shake the dog off in the process, but to no avail. However, its grip at the time was not from its jaws, but simply its paws and weight on Vexen.

"Silly dog!" Kagura said, with Rinoa laughing.

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- A headbiting sequence is more-or-less required in the context of Sadaharu. When Vexen's involved, I personally think it's friggin' hilarious.

- There is a reason why Kyoko's here in Amanto Edo, and not in Sweeper's Field, but as of when I wrote this note, I haven't worked that out just yet.

- A Moka clone? Alternate Eve? I'm throwing y'all for a loop here...


	9. 8: Info on Whom

"Today, we have an interesting project for the two of you," Saix said to Roman and Roxas.

Oh no, Roman thought. Investigation.

"Gather information on at least three different non-human type beings that reside in Youkai Academy," Saix said, handing the black haired boy the mission specs on a piece of paper bearing the Nobody symbol in watermark.

"Wha… what?"

"How do we do that? We barely got any kind of information when it was me, him and Xion," Roxas said.

"Ensure that no one sees you this time around if you want the information necessary," Saix said.

"Okay, if you're giving us as much freedom as you're giving us with this one, that ain't a problem," Roman said, rolling his arm, ready to go.

"And why's that?" the other two Nobodies asked.

"I've been practicing my… ahem, skills. Not that I want to be looked at oddly, I'm just trying to assert the fact that I'm a guy, and women to men are a pleasure to watch."

For a period of time, Saix and Roxas fell silent. "Wow."

It was not Roxas who said this, but Saix, continuing to look at Roman with his cold yellow eyes. Roxas merely bowed his head down in disgust, knowing that Roman was talking of his own perversion.

"What? WHAT? You're hating a dude for liking hot chicks? Man, we're a messed up bunch a' beings…" Roman said as he walked into the portal with Roxas following.

That boy is an unholy combination of Demyx, Xigbar and Axel, Saix thought to himself as he walked out of the Grey Area.

* * *

"My lord," Saix asked, seated on one of the elevated thrones in the Room of Gathering. "I wish to express questions about Vexen and Roman, though not in that order."

Xemnas merely gave a silent nod. "First. What do you see in the boy, Roman? He does not bear the X of identification, and he acts out more than a Nobody should."

"Have you observed the Heartless he slays by his hands and feet?" Xemnas asked back. "The hearts released from their demise bear an uncanny resemblance to those destined to Kingdom Hearts. Just as Sora has the eyes of Roxas."

Saix's eyes widened a bit. "He may not bear a third Keyblade for us… but he collects hearts all the same," Xemnas added. "As long as he stays within boundaries, I care little for his behavior. In fact, I may need to be entertained… as much as a shell can be."

"I see. My next question is in regards to Vexen and his search."

"Yes… that unusual stretch of time he gave himself," Xemnas said. "What if I told you that we could end up with two new members?"

"What?"

Xemnas gave a small smile. "You see, Vexen began something days after the fifteenth's arrival. I investigated it myself one day, though it seems that he himself did not see me coming. You are familiar with his replicas?"

"Yes… of course," Saix said, curious as to the rest of the information Xemnas found.

"He did not say much, but I suspect that he is making one for our purposes once again."

Saix stopped himself from asking something. He restarted aloud, "Why would he replicate someone so that the replica can join our ranks? If the replica meets the original, a crisis could arise and the replica may defect. Also, he has also made various replicas fairly quickly. I recall one of his earlier replicas that he created overnight."

"But this is different," Xemnas said, waving his hand.

The center platform bearing the mark of the Nobody rose up to a few feet from Saix's own pair of feet. With a beam of light, holograms of Roxas and Xion appeared. "From what I was able to gather from the time I was there and the time it has taken him so far, this may be more than a simple replica."

Saix looked at the holograms, recalling Roxas' first week within their ranks before the puppet's arrival. "We could not only have the survivor of that accursed city, but we can also have a loyal replica, designed to never stray from our side. Much like you," Xemnas said, dispelling Roxas and Xion and replacing them with two hooded figures.

"He's replicating me," Saix said, intending for his statement to sound like a question, but blood boiling made it sound somewhat deadpan with a underlayer of scorn.

"I do not know."

"So he's been double tasking since six days ago," Saix said.

Xemnas silently nodded as the hooded holograms disappeared and the platform sank again. "He is not Demyx," he stated.

A pause. "Granted," Saix said before disappearing in a column of darkness.

* * *

When Roman and Roxas came from the dark portal, those in the Grey Area were greeted by the sight of an ice knife sticking out of the black haired boy's forehead, a large red hand mark on his left cheek, a similar mark on Roxas's cheek and two small puncture wounds on his right hand. "I blame you for not warning me about that Mizore girl being in the bush," Roman said to Roxas.

"I blame you for speeding up so that when I called out to you, my hand got between Tsukune's neck and Moka's mouth," Roxas said back. "What was she doing, anyway?"

As he said that, Roman presented Roxas with a small notepad. "Second monster type," Roman said.

Opening it, Roxas found the recon that they had gone to Youkai Academy for. The first "monster" type they looked at was the _yuki onna_, which both didn't know what it exactly translated to—snow fairy or snow woman. They were watching Mizore Shirayuki for this, Mizore being one of the locals who helped the boys and Xion the last time they were there. According to Roman's notes, yuki onna in these parts are often found sucking on mint lollipops to counteract the heat. In addition, yuki onna have dominion over ice and tend to use ice for claws or in a later case that day, knives. They can also freeze bodies of water at will as well as make near-perfect and fragile ice copies of themselves or others. A quick doodle at the bottom of the page was of Vexen laughing.

The second type was the vampire, which the boys found two subjects. One was the familiar one they were helped by: Moka Akashiya. The other was a brown-orange haired "pigtail" girl whose name they didn't get clearly. All Roman wrote down was "Koko(a)." Vampires in this world, in heavy opposition to most vampire lore, are not vulnerable to sunlight, crosses or garlic. However, non-herbal water is their prime weakness. Roman supplemented this note with a doodle of Demyx poking the pigtail girl with his sitar. Vampires also don't have to drink blood to survive, but they like the taste of some people. Roman also noted down what Moka said about Roxas' blood: "It's strange… bland, almost."

The third type was not what Roxas expected at the time. The witch. Roman noted that the witch is not sure what it's supposed to be: monster or exceptional human. Therefore, he expressed confusion on why the girl they picked out was even there: Yukari Sendo, the girl that dropped the pan on them the last time they were there. In accordance with most lore, the witch is incredibly adept at magic, even at a young age. They also have a pranking tendency, making a variety of strange items for such purposes. Luckily, neither Nobody fell for any of her pranks while they were there.

The fourth type, "the one for the win!" The succubus, the type associated with the girl that Roman found especially attractive out of the ones they were watching. They can sport bat wings, tail and razor sharp nails in their true form, and has notable strength (Kurumu Kurono kicked open the door not knowing that Roman was right behind it and he was sent out the window). Also, Roman noted that succubi possess powers or 'Allure,' used to hypnotize males. Beside this particular note was something scribbled sideways saying "What, it doesn't get women? What kind of succubi are these?" Succubi are also masters of illusions. They can also learn basic witchcraft from what the boys saw.

It was after they had finished the mission completely when Roman tripped due to a male student's meddling into a bush, where Mizore was hidden. To Xion, the rest was history. "Let me guess," she started. "Recon gone wrong?"

"It was after the fact," Roman said, taking the knife out of his forehead. "Son of a bitch," he said afterwards.

As he tossed the knife, he looked to the left and saw Vexen, who had bandaged his head. "Heartless population popping up again?" he asked.

Vexen only replied with a huff and left the room. "I'll take that as a yes!" Roman said after him.

"I don't think it's a good idea to bother him more than he seems to be," Roxas said, nursing the still-aching mark on his face.

"Hey, I'm trying to keep it interesting, alright? Consider it me."

* * *

Day 7. 70%. Should I investigate this compound further, Vexen thought, or should I just leave it be and keep using it as I am? A scientist must know what he is working with, but could it be possible that what I don't know will not harm me?

Wondering this, Vexen drew another sample of Compound NM. Placing the drop of it under a microscope, he did his best to observe it. He did find an interesting thing: small specks in the microscopically clear fluid. He surmised that this was the thing responsible for the silver coloration to the naked eye. Zooming in a close as he safely could, he noticed that the specks did not seem to be blob-like. Rather, they were organic, but they looked like silver squids, almost. "Fascinating…"

Outside the lab door, Odd Jobs Gin was there. This was their first official day on the job of protection, but what they were protecting, they didn't really know. Kagura was the first to note this. "He never really did say what it was we're protecting, you know."

"Looking at him, it's probably something scientific that he's keeping from his colleagues," Rinoa said, petting Sadaharu.

"Are you kidding me? He's an old man from what I see," Gintoki said, leaning against the wall with an issue of JUMP in one hand. "I'd state my opinion, but I don't think the two of you would like it."

"Well, I think I know!" Kagura said happily. "I bet he's a pervert!"

"…No," Gintoki said, Rinoa now looking a little green. "Maybe he is actually a she. A witch at that."

Rinoa's face went a little greener. "Oh, dear God…" she said weakly.

"You know, that's actually better. Hey, what about a perverted witch?" Kagura said.

With this, Rinoa's face went near-totally green. Stumbling over to the edge of the walkway, she laid herself down to lessen her chances of falling with her head over the edge. "Oh God… both of you, change the subject… just this place alone was making me sick…"

"Maybe she—" Kagura started, but she never finished, as Rinoa started throwing up into the seemingly bottomless dark pit.

"Jeez, can't hold on to your lunch? Trust me, I've seen much worse. Like, fatality worse," Gintoki said, tilting his head up.

"I want to go home…" Rinoa said weakly, crawling back to Sadaharu's side.

The dog's ear only twitched when she rested her head on his back. Gintoki looked up at the long, twisting walkway leading to where they were. Only a guardwall going up to one's ribcage would prevent an unfortunate accident, and the platform they were on had a guardrail large enough for Rinoa to stick her head out of on the bottom. "Why can't we be up there, where the top is?" he asked himself as Kagura burped after downing a can of soda which she promptly tossed into the pit. "Hm. Probably because we're low on money."

Minutes later, Vexen walked through the automatic sliding door. Rinoa was peacefully sleeping on top of Sadaharu while Kagura was watching a movie on her PSP. Gintoki was further up on the walkway, etching something on the side of the guardwall with his bokken. "That will be all for today," Vexen announced, stirring Sadaharu awake prompting the Nobody to step away.

"For today? You mean we'll be doing this again?" Gintoki asked, looking away from the doodle of himself he was etching.

"Of course. You didn't think that it would be all in one day, did you? This will go on for the next three days, so I expect you three to be on your guard," Vexen said, opening a dark portal. "This portal will take you home without fail."

"A swirling dark portal again? We trusted you on the way here, but why should we trust you if you're not coming with us?" Kagura asked, having turned off her PSP. Sadaharu, now standing, added a bark.

"Yes, you should. I assure you, the only way to receive the rest of the pay is to trust me and do whatever I request of you. For right now, it's just simple security, so it really shouldn't be an issue whatsoever," Vexen said.

Before Kagura could retort again, Gintoki was through the portal. "G-Gin-chan! What do you think you're doing?" Kagura yelled as she followed in pursuit with Sadaharu and Rinoa in pursuit.

"Headaches… I should have stuck with the local affair," Vexen said as the portal closed.

He waved his hand for another to take him back to the city. Will this ruse of a member in the city hold with those imbeciles being themselves, he thought. Or will one of them run and get themselves caught? No… as a whole, they're too stupid. The girl, Rinoa, however, is too smart to run. What unfounded worries of mine. In the dark corridor, he nursed his head injuries from his evaluation of them. He wondered if they would ever heal properly so that he could take off the bandages and think properly.

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- Lookie! Nanomachines! But wait… what about the hair coloration? And the hair color? The mindfricking continues…

- I really wish I could provide an actual sketch of Demyx poking Kokoa… maybe I can pester a deviantART friend for that.


	10. 9: Double Mission

"Today, you will execute a double mission in two different worlds," Saix said.

Roman had an incredulous look on his face. "Er… pardon?" he asked.

"Once you complete one mission, you will proceed immediately to the next. For today, you will go to Amanto Edo then Sweeper's Field," Saix said handing Roman the mission specs.

The first mission Roman looked at was the Amanto Edo mission. Investigate the Shinsengumi. What the fuck is that, Roman thought, some freelancer group? Also to his chagrin was the fact that it was, once again, recon. However, the breakthrough number caught his attention: only one for basic completion. How does that work?

The second mission was the Sweeper's Field mission. Team up with Axel and collect hearts. Be on the lookout for Tailbunkers and Avalanches. Those are the bird-ish Heartless, Roman thought. This may suck.

"Question, before I go," Roman said, folding and pocketing the papers. "Axel's going to be in Sweeper's Field before I get there?"

"If you handle your business in Amanto Edo correctly (or rather, incorrectly), yes."

* * *

The first thing Roman stepped on after going through the portal was not the ground, but a pair of red glasses. He didn't, however, break them as he was stepping lightly due to the area in which he ended up, which was an empty alley. He was always careful around these areas, as he had been jumped on more than one occasion in them. Picking the glasses up, he took off his own glasses to try the other pair on. Roman found himself momentarily blinded by the sheer power of the prescription on the red pair, so he stuck with his regular pair. "Ah! Oh- Jesus," he said when he first put the red pair on.

"Those happen to be mine," a voice said from seemingly nowhere.

Roman stumbled and tripped on his own feet from the surprise. Had the dark corridor not closed earlier, he would have fell right back in. Getting himself to sitting position, he looked around for the source of the voice, but saw nothing. "Okay, whose glasses are these?" he asked aloud, addressing the voice.

"Mine," the voice said from behind him.

Roman looked back to find a light purple haired woman looking to his right. She had her arms folded and was staring intently at a poster of some strange advertisement that Roman, for the life of him, couldn't comprehend. "I would appreciate it if you would give them back right about now," she said to it.

"Uh… Ma'am? A-are you trying to talk to me?" Roman inquired, standing up.

"What does it look like?" she said to the poster.

It quickly became apparent to him that she thought the poster was him, and the glasses had something to do with it. Grabbing her shoulder, he turned the woman to face him. "Eh? Vice-Commander Hijikata?" she asked, confused. "What are you doing here? And what are you wearing?"

Roman only stared at her for a moment. Had either Roxas or Xion been there, he would have stated that, "I'm giving her the Doctor stare. That means that my mind has been damaged." Without warning, he shoved the red glasses into her face, pushing the bridge up with one finger and tilting her a little before she resumed her previous posture. "Who are you?" she asked.

More staring. This time, he slowly backed away and out of the alley. After he left, the woman looked to her left (Roman's right at the time) and saw the poster. "Oh. So that's what I was looking at."

* * *

The Shinsengumi headquarters. Toshiro Hijikata, vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, sat cross-legged before Isao Kondo, the commander, who was sitting in a similar position. "There you have it," Hijikata said.

"Oh, so this is the girl that you saw earlier?" Kondo asked, holding up a picture of a violet-eyed girl whose mouth was an open smile. "By the way, Hijikata," he added.

He leaned forward slightly to get a better listen.

"Who the hell is this girl?"

Hijikata's head slumped down, like neckbones broke (which they didn't). "I just spent ten minutes explaining that that's the strange Amanto that's been sighted in Edo, Kondo-san," he said in an annoyed tone that was struggling not to get too angry.

"Oh yes, that's right. Some kind of fire Amanto, is she?"

Hijikata resumed his original posture. "We have reason to believe that because she was sighted in several areas where we suspected high amounts of criminal activity."

Kondo had a look of surprise. "But wait…" he said. "Where was she seen?"

Hijikata was practically knocked over by disbelief that his superior just said that. Snapping back upright, he shouted, "Haven't you been listening to me?"

The sight to an onlooker, namely an Assassin Nobody, would have made Hijikata look like the superior of the two, and not Kondo. The Nobody's arm, holding a camcorder, disappeared into the ground, and it slithered back outside, careful not to find itself under the footsteps of passing Shinsengumi officers. Outside, it met with Roman who was crouched around the corner of the outer wall of the headquarters so that he would not alert any guards. The Assassin presented Roman with the camcorder, which it bothered to turn off. "Good boy," he said to it, like it were some sort of pet. "Go fetch!" he said as he tossed a heart-shaped candy with the Assassin in pursuit. I swear, these things can't discern hearts and candy to save themselves, he thought.

Turning on the camcorder, he reviewed the footage the Assassin recorded. It showed several Shinsengumi officers throughout the building, including what he surmised to be the Hijikata character that the woman from earlier claimed him to be. Well, I can kind of guess why, he thought. We have the same general hairstyle.

Replaying the footage over and over again to note things on a notepad as he had lunch in a nearby restaurant, he noted some important figures. Sougo: lighthearted yet deadpan dude who wants Hijikata dead via bazooka thing. Also a sadist and lazy. Yamazaki: badminton guy who is also an efficient spy. Kondo: commander? Albeit a goofy commander. Hijikata: badass vice-commander. Also a chain smoker. The name "Roy Mustang" comes to mind.

A device in Roman's pocket beeped after he closed the notepad. Basic completion. The dark corridor is open. Well, that simply won't do, he thought. "'Scuse me, waitress? I'm done with my dishes here!" he called out as he pocketed the device.

"Yes sir, I'll be right there!" a young woman called out.

Yawning and standing up from his seat, he left a few larger munny orbs on the table. However, it would seem that a hand caught one of the orbs. Looking in the direction of its arm, he was shocked to find that he was staring right into the eyes of Isao Kondo. "And just who the hell are you? Calling out Otae-san like that like you own her," he said.

Roman only let out a confused squeak of sorts. On the inside however, he was relieved that Kondo seemed completely oblivious to what he was doing earlier. "You should show respect to those around you, especially if they're in a tight situation like her. Calling out to them is not showing proper respect," he continued.

"YOU'RE the one showing improper respect, you damned stalker!" A woman in a pink yukata shouted as she kicked Kondo into the wall, firmly embedding his face into the wall.

In accordance with the voice, it was the waitress that Roman called for. "Oh… shit," he said, looking at Kondo in his ridiculous position of his rear practically for all to see.

Not able to resist the temptation, he kicked Kondo before running off whilst writing, "Stalker of this Otae girl. Will often turn up where she is (maybe)." He didn't really notice his device beeping again to indicate 100% completion.

* * *

"You're early," Axel said as the dark corridor closed behind him in Sweeper's Field.

"No, you're just late," Roman said as he kicked a Soldier Heartless into the night sky.

"You really sure that was a good idea, treating that one like a ball?" Axel asked, torching a Striped Aria. "Someone could track that."

"Yeah, but only if they have uber-skills," Roman replied, embedding another Soldier into the ground with his foot before kicking its head off, releasing its heart, "Which I doubt many people have around here. Not that I'm trying to downgrade anyone, I'm just saying."

"So you and Luxord were here a few days ago?" Axel asked, looking across the empty streets lit only by the waxing half moon.

"Yeah… apparently, Vexen was running low on some chemical that even he didn't know about, so he got me and Luxord to go," Roman said, going down the road in the direction he believed to lead to the laboratory.

"Jeez, obscure much?" Axel said.

"Well, if he didn't know much about it himself, then he couldn't help it."

Along the road were several Heartless. This didn't pose much of a problem, since the assignment was to collect hearts. Roman pointed out the alley where his and Luxord's extraction point was. He also pointed out the small store they had cut through to save time. Coincidentally, it was open tonight, too, though the lights were off. "Strange," Roman said, "You'd think it'd be closed at this hour, right? Hey, what time is it over at the Castle?"

Axel only shrugged as he put down a stuffed cat he was looking at. "I'm not the guy who wears a watch."

The stuffed cat began to shake its head violently and meowed like a mad…cat. "Oh shit, Seizure Cat!" Roman exclaimed, trying to go out the back door.

The door was blocked off by the trademark pulsating vines that indicated unrelated areas, so Roman merely ran into the door trying to go through. Axel remained calm, tossed the stuffed cat into the air and decapitated it with a swift slash of a chakram. "Ouch… nice, the door's blocked," Roman said, standing up and rubbing his nose.

"So we're not heading to this lab you and Luxord went to," Axel said, flaming the now headless stuffed cat with a snap of his fingers.

"Not today, no. Hey… check out the streets," Roman said, pointing out the window at the front of the small store.

The streetlamps now had an eerie purple glow to them. Only ten of them had this, but the illumination was enough to catch the attention of the two Nobodies present. Running out of the store, Axel and Roman nearly came into contact with a flame that had fazed through the glass of one of the street lamps and floated towards a manhole cover. "Never said anything about a giant Heartless in the mission report," Roman said, cracking his knuckles and preparing for a fight.

"Then it's safe to say Demyx was looking through," Axel said.

The other nine purple flames danced in a circle around the manhole cover before coming together into one larger flame. It touched down on the cover and erupted into a large pillar which soon turned orange-red, the proper color of fire. From the fire pillar, what looked like a Guard Armor stepped out, but its colors were various reds, oranges and yellows as opposed to purples. "Jeez, the Heartless send something like this? While I'm around?" Axel said, not really impressed.

His smile faded a bit when another one stepped out, colored like a proper Guard Armor. However, the pillar was purple when it came out. "Ooh, this is bad," Roman commented.

The two Armors traded one arm and leg each, resulting in mismatched limbs and colors, but this added to the effect of orange and purple fire from the corresponding armor parts. "Let me say this: if we had hearts, that would have been so much cooler," Roman said before Axel could say anything.

With that, the battle was on. The Armors spun their arms to form a blazing trail of mixed orange and purple and their feet stomped to create massive fire circles that stayed only for a moment, but threatened to seriously burn either Nobody as they aimed for the heads. After another exchange of limbs, the Armors now had their hands shoot at the Nobodies like deadly missiles that embedded themselves within the street. Their feet tap-danced to Roman's slight amusement, but this was broken by the fact that they were entirely engulfed by fire. One thing in particular caught Roman's attention throughout the battle: Axel didn't seem to hold up especially well against this particular fire. This was a bit of a shock given that the man was affiliated with fire, and friendly fire in regards to said spell was no issue with him. However, he seemed to not tolerate these particular flames.

The battle raged on for minutes until Roman finally finished off his Armor and its associated limbs. Only the hot-rod colored one was left and that one was being handled by Axel. It stomped over to its fallen comrade, not seeming to mind the chakram lodged in the left side of its head or Axel actively attacking it. Stopping at the fallen Armor, flames snaked in the air from its fingertips and started to make its way to the helmet. Seeing this, Roman leapt forward and kicked the fire trail apart and with a rising uppercut, launched the Armor's helmet into the night sky where it embedded itself in the ground with a loud crack. The remaining pieces joined the others in a large heap which, rather appropriately, burned up with little trace except several scorch marks. From the large bonfire rose two gleaming hearts, joining their comrades in Kingdom Hearts.

"Oh… dear," Roman said, surveying the damage caused.

Not only were there several holes in the ground from the Armor hands and one Armor's helmet, but there were several heavily burnt areas supplemented by molten streetlamps. The manhole was also melted into the street, making access in and out through that one virtually impossible. "Uh… run," Roman quickly said and did just that with Axel in tow, holding his side which looked torn.

* * *

Day 8. 80% completion. Once again, Odd Jobs Gin found themselves outside the door to the laboratory. "Hey, did anyone hear about what happened over at that one restaurant near the Shinsengumi HQ?" Kagura asked with her mouth full of a rice ball.

"Oh, did that commander person get beat down by Otae?" Rinoa asked.

"Yeah, he did. His face got stuck in the wall, so they had to cut a section of the wall so that they could get him out faster!"

"Sheesh, and he is the commander of the Shinsengumi…" Gintoki said, leaning against the wall. Instead of an issue of JUMP, he was reading a volume of Bleach that had recently come out.

"It does make you wonder why he's the commander, and not Toshiro Hijikata," Rinoa said. "He seems much more capable, even if he does actually smother much of his food in mayonnaise."

"That's true, you know," Kagura said, taking another bite of a rice ball. "He seriously does like assloads of mayo on his food."

Gintoki closed his book and put it back in his coat. Looking at the door curiously, he looked at it up and down, as if he were searching for something. "Gin-san, what are you doing?" Rinoa asked.

"I think it's in our best interests now that we find out what that androgynous creep is working on," Gintoki said, tapping the door with his bokken. "We've never been in there, so wouldn't it be a good idea to be as familiar as possible with the place we're guarding?"

"Yeah, you're right! Now that I think about it, he's probably a cook and he doesn't want me eating what he's cooking!" Kagura piped up.

"Why would he be a cook…?" Rinoa said. "He doesn't know anything personal about us, so why—"

"Hey, behind closed doors, all ideas are welcome," Gintoki said.

He continued searching the door, running the tip of his bokken across the door. He must have been able to get in, he thought. Unless he locked the door. I don't want to kick it in just yet.

Sadaharu took the opportunity to prop himself up to standing by placing his paws on Gintoki's shoulders. Much to Kagura's surprise, he didn't bite Gintoki as he normally would when he gets himself up like that. Instead, he was sniffing something. However, Gintoki "sheathed" his bokken and gave a huff of disappointment. Sadaharu got off of his shoulders as well. "Ka-wu…" he said.

"Thanks for trying to help," Gintoki said to Sadaharu, petting him between the ears.

* * *

"Axel? What happened?" Roxas asked.

"Like that knight says, it's just a flesh wound," Axel commented with a smile. "Besides, since we're not human, it won't be a problem tomorrow."

"But those things that jumped us…" Roman said with his arms folded in thought. "I seemed to take the flames better than he was, surprisingly. Maybe they used special fire."

"They?" Xion asked.

"Two Guard Armor looking things. There was no warning of a giant Heartless on the mission report, so we were caught off guard," Roman said. "Ooh, and before I forget…"

Roman took three sticks of light blue ice cream out of a bag. One for each of them save for himself. He preferred vanilla as opposed to the others who always had sea salt. To Roman, salty and sweet aren't exactly the best drinking partners if one could catch his drift. Unlike the other three, who sat on the edge of the tower, Roman sat farther back, against the wall, behind Roxas and Xion.

"There's that kid with the funky hair again," Roxas said, looking down. "Other than you, Axel, I don't think I've seen hair like that."

"My hair's red, not orange like him!" Axel said.

"Wait, who y'all talkin' about?" Roman asked, standing up and looking over Roxas' head.

At the lower level of the area, there was a boy in a school uniform with orange hair reminiscent of fire. He recognized this boy as Tsuna Sawada. A personal recon mission had Roman find out that he's effectively a wimp with not much going for him. However, it seems that this had slowly began to change, but how exactly, he didn't know, nor did he care for. For the time being, he wasn't bothering anyone, and he preferred to keep it like that by not getting further involved. Roman sat back down and resumed eating his ice cream.

Like all the days he decided to go up to the tower with the others, the sunset was particularly beautiful. It was always a shame to leave it after they all decided to RTC, but Roman knew that it would always be there. Its radiance faintly reminded Roman of something, but he couldn't place his finger on it. Maybe it was his poor memory attacking him again with memories of his first day up at the tower. Or… not?

* * *

[Enemy Data: Blazer Armors]

These twin armors use special flames that demand physical resistance! They can also change moves by exchanging body parts, so destroy them quickly to reduce their effectiveness.

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- It was an absolute BLAST to write up the Blazer Armor sequence. If anyone wants to provide a sketch of the enemy, you're more than welcome to, but credit me in some way.

- I write up a lot of battle sequences so that the reader has to fill in any blanks with their imagination. I sort of base them on event battles in Kingdom Hearts II, explaining why some of them may seem short. You have to fill in the blanks as if though Kingdom Hearts – Artifice were an actual game!

- The Doctor stare… imagine David Tennant, if you would.


	11. 10: Friendly Infiltration

"Another day off?" Roman asked, lazily resting on one of the couches in the Grey Area wearing a light blue (he calls it cobalt) and grey shorts.

For whatever reason today, he couldn't be bothered to wear so much as flip flop, so other members were greeted by the sight of feet whiter than the rest of Roman's complexion. "I call 'em cracker feet," he joked to Xion before she could ask.

"Well…" she started. "I WAS going to ask why you weren't wearing any shoes. Your feet aren't disgusting… really. It's just that everyone else is wearing shoes or boots or something."

"Newsflash: You and Roxas are the only two I've seen today so far," Roman said, sitting upright.

As he said that, Axel walked in yawning. He clutched a plush toy in the shape of a plume of fire and was wearing red vertical striped pajamas supported by slippers reminiscent of his chakrams. "Case in point in regards to clothing," Roman said, pointing to Axel who promptly went back to sleep on one of the couches on the opposite side of the room. "By the way, where is Roxas, anyways?" he added.

"I don't know," Xion said, seating herself on the couch on the opposite side of the table. "Maybe he's gone to Twilight Town for something."

"From what I know about him, that makes sense. Me? I'm just gonna stay here for today. Maybe hit the simulator, but… hm. My options around here are pretty limited now that I think about it."

* * *

"This is very important, Roxas," Saix said as the two went through the halls of the Castle.

"Why is that?" Roxas asked.

"We are conducting reconnaissance within our own castle."

Roxas stopped. [In the castle itself?] he thought. [Did someone break in?]

"In case you are wondering," Saix said, "This is for Lord Xemnas to check on progress of a project that has been going on since the fifteenth's arrival."

They went into the lower levels of the castle, levels where Roxas had never been to. He was continually amazed by how large the castle was and how relatively little of it was actually in usual use. There were only fifteen of them, after all. Not like families going up to nineteen as Roxas had seen on more than one occasion on TV. Even so, they didn't need huge castles: just a large house. After what seemed like half an eternity, the two reached the end of a large downwards spiral ramp to a doorway. "This is it, according to Lord Xemnas," Saix announced calmly as usual.

At this point, the hallways were scarcely lit, so Roxas had a bit of a hard time finding the door even with the neon blue lights illuminating on the floor and walls. The twin doors slid open to reveal what looked like a dark, deep chasm with a spiraling ramp going down and starting to the right. Only a short, waist-high (to Saix) wall stood between walkers and certain death. Roxas gulped and followed Saix on the long way down. Another eternity later, and Roxas noticed something on the guardwall. Someone had etched something in. He recognized the language as Japanese, as some worlds put it, and he struggled to translate it. "An…dro…gynous… freak," he read aloud.

The message was directed with an arrow to what looked like Vexen, but he couldn't tell, exactly. The lips were too big, and the face, frankly, scared him. Saix stood in front of a door in the wall a little further down, on a flat part. Roxas guessed that this was where the pathway ended, as the wall turned to a guardrail. "This may be it," Saix said.

The door unexpectedly divided open, prompting Saix to summon his signature Claymore and causing Roxas to jump back a bit. Seeing nothing, Saix dispelled the claymore and walked in with little reserve. "H-Hey! Wait!" Roxas called as he ran in after him.

Instead of anything resembling a laboratory, the two were met with a long hallway lined with doors. They had security keypads, as if though something was put behind here to be restrained to be concealed from public view. Roxas decided to take a look through the bars of one of the doors out of curiosity with Saix standing behind him. The first cell he checked was empty. No bed in the wall, no sink, nothing. Like they expected those inside to just sit there, die and rot. Not that it seemed to have happened, though. There was no stench of decomposition.

Walking to another cell further up, Roxas peered in. Nothing again. He wondered why these cells would be empty and devoid of practically anything. To him, it was like the cells were not initially planned to be included and were last-minute additions to the castle. Saix continued on forward to the door, which was more regal-looking than the one they went through to get into the well-lit hallway. "There," he said.

Walking up to the front of the door, it opened up and he stepped through with Roxas behind him. The two were greeted by the sight of a large laboratory with machines lining the walls and a large screen display on the opposite side of the room. Sections of the floor were glass revealing transparent piping with liquids going to and from a large metal cylinder that was as tall as the room itself, built into the floor and ceiling. Instead of being white or light grey, the metals here were dark greys. A control panel of sorts stood some feet away from the large metal cylinder, and in front of that was a yellow and black striped section on the floor, where he presumed the operator of whatever stood. In many machines, there seemed to be test tubes built into the machines themselves. Roxas didn't want to try to take any out for fear that he might break one.

The two separated and looked throughout the laboratory, examining the machines and Saix drawing a composite sketch of the area's general layout. Roxas merely looked at the machines, running his hand over a few, careful not to touch anything. He came to a machine directly to the left of the laboratory's entrance from the perspective of someone walking in. There were three knobs below a large white, glowing bar. The knobs had rings of red, green and blue. Walking to this machine, Roxas tilted his head curiously and moved the red knob by pure accident. The bar was no longer white. Roxas readjusted the knob, making it turn back to white. "What would Roman do?" he asked aloud.

He figured that he would play with the knobs a bit before leaving them back at white. He always was a hands-on person. By the time Roxas finished his thought, he found his own hands on the knobs. [Ah, what the hell,] he thought as he began to fiddle with the knobs.

The glowing bar turned all sorts of colors as Roxas adjusting the knobs to varying degrees, just to see what would happen. All this happened without Saix noticing, as he had walked over to the control console. He noticed a piece of paper stuck under a metal panel, pulled it out and unfolded it. He recognized the handwriting as Vexen's. There were words next to unintelligible scribbling, as if to translate something. Saix soon noticed that one of the scribblings seemed to be identical to one of the symbols on the touch screen. Following a trail on the paper, Saix touched one graphic, then the next. The third one prompted a loud clunk that startled Roxas as he reached for another knob and he pressed the glowing bar, which was now a brilliant gold.

The metal cylinder rose into the ceiling to reveal a glass one. Inside, it seemed that there was a long haired being curled up into a ball and floating in clear liquid. Roxas once visualized tubes for something like this, but there were no such tubes to speak of. The being bore gorgeous snow-white hair, and its eyes were closed, like it was sleeping. "A being soon to be born by sleep…" Saix said. "So this is what he is working on."

"Vexen?" Roxas asked, walking over to the glass.

"Yes, exactly."

Roxas looked up at the being. A girl. "That is supposed to be me?" Saix asked.

Roxas looked at him curiously. "I do not see it," Saix added.

"Wait, what?" Roxas asked.

The next event caught their attention: the girl's hair started to turn faintly yellow. This was gradual, but fairly fast. Saix squinted to get a better look and Roxas's jaw went slack. [Oh… no,] he thought. [I must messed it up. Me.]

"Intriguing," was all Saix said in response and touched a graphic to resummon the metal.

He started on his way out as Roxas followed. He was stopped, however, by a machine similar to the last with the same three knobs. The bar above this one was glowing a soft, feminine magenta. Roxas considered something… then hit himself on the head with the Keyblade for even considering such a thing. "Stupid…" he said as he walked out the door.

Through the long hallway and out the other door to the large chasm. "Now we know that it's there…" Saix said, waving his hand to summon a dark corridor.

"You mean we can't use these to get to places we've never seen in person?" Roxas asked. "So how do we get to new worlds?"

"When you get a high enough standing within the Organization, you will know," Saix said. "You may even be part of the process."

* * *

"Just what the hell are these things supposed to be made of, anyways?" Roman said as he threw a Limit Recharge against the wall.

Apparently, he had got bored in the absence of Roxas and Axel had left some time ago, so he figured that he would try to find out if said item could bounce. After several throws at the floor, wall and windows, it soon became apparent that it would not do such a thing like a rubber ball. "They're not glass, or else this thing would have shattered long ago."

"No, but with you, it's more likely to put a dent in the wall," Xion said, looking up from a manga she was reading.

Without warning, Roman knocked it out of her hands by throwing the Limit Recharge at it. "It's bad enough that I read yuri, shoujo-ai and the like out here, but you with that sort of material? Absolutely not," Roman said, kicking it out of Xion's reach from her couch.

"But I like shoune—" she started, but Roman cut her off by smacking her over the head with a hand chop.

"NO," he said.

As fate would have it, a black and yellow streak came by and swiped the manga right off the floor and retreated out of the Grey Area as quickly as it came. Roman and Xion both had faces of amazement not only at the speed and what was taken, but whom they associated that colored streak with. "M-My shoune—" Xion started.

"DON'T say it," Roman said, cutting her off again. "Hell, you got good reason to. Here comes Roxas."

"What was that that passed me?" Roxas asked.

"Larxene, more likely than not," Roman replied. "She made off with one of Xion's manga. She made a good choice, since there's one less thing I have to deal with in here."

"Do you make your existence off of insulting my body and interests?" Xion asked.

"Nah, just your body and the manga you usually read," Roman replied quite frankly.

With that, Xion punched the boy in the face. "Anyway," Roxas started, "Does anyone know about the lower levels of the castle?"

"There's more to this big-ass castle?" Roman asked from the floor.

"Apparently so. Saix told me to not tell anyone else, but I figure you guys can keep a secret, right?"

Both black-haired Nobodies nodded. "Okay, here goes. Earlier today, Saix and I found this secret laboratory deep under where we usually go around here. It looks like Vexen is making something, like a person. And… I think I messed it up."

"Oh, dude. You killed it?" Roman asked.

"No!" Roxas replied quickly. "I… just…"

He mumbled out the rest of his sentence. Xion would have needed to ask for clarification, but Roman was close enough to use his own sense to complete the sentence. "So you're a closet egomaniac?" he said before being kicked.

* * *

Day 9. After pouring the Compound into the test tube and bringing completion to 90%, something caught the left side of Vexen's vision. [Wasn't that light white?] he thought.

Walking over to the console, he noticed that the glowing bar that was above three knobs was glowing golden yellow. [Surely, this may be an indication that-]

And then everything held still in time for a moment. A siren started to go off in Vexen's head as he stared at the bar of light. [Is it… a button?]

He turned to face an imaginary camera with a look of sheer horror. He ran back to the control panel, accidently hitting the graphic for the trap door and nearly falling in. Closing the door, he frantically searched for the graphic to unveil the being within the containment unit, failing to realize that he had opened the first door to the hallway directly outside the laboratory in the process. Finally, he found the desired graphic and slammed his fist down on it.

The subject's hair was no longer white, but golden blonde. It had not changed lengths, but its color certainly had changed. "Wha-Wha-Wha-What kind of scandalous mockery is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!" Vexen shouted, gripping the sides of his head in terror and disbelief.

* * *

"What day is it today?"Gintoki asked Rinoa.

She turned away from rubbing Sadaharu's belly to reply, "It's Day Three. But if you want to know the day, day, it's Wednesday."

"So the newest JUMP won't be for two more days…"

"You really are fixated on JUMP, aren't you?" Kagura asked, looking up from one of her few functioning game UMDs, which was an imported game which she presumed to be English. "Aren't you getting too old for that?"

"Yeah, I realize that. I always keep saying that some issue will be my last…" Gintoki replied. "But I always keep coming back for more."

"It's like an Italian mafia or something," Rinoa said. "By the way, why in the world did you bring your scooter today?"

All three freelancers took a look at Gintoki's signature blue motorscooter, which was resting against the guardrail next to Kagura. "I figured that you two are enough to guard this door, so I'm going to see how long it'll take for me to get up there," he said.

He put on his helmet with a sticker reading "Gin" on in and took the scooter from the guardrail. Setting it where the ramp began, he revved the motor on it. "Besides, we always sit here for a long-ass time, so I probably won't be missed all that much."

"This is a very bad idea…" Rinoa said, moving Sadaharu behind her.

"Not really. He can just find me and put a portal in my way, anyway," Gintoki said.

At that moment, the door opened. The three freelancers walked in front of it, wondering how it had opened. "Well, damn," Gintoki said.

"Now's our chance! Let's see what he's cooking!" Kagura said as she began to tiptoe in.

Rinoa, however, pulled her back by the back of Kagura's shirt. "Wait! Maybe he opened it by accident. Let's just look from here so we have something to work with," she said.

The three of them looked in through the door. Instead of a laboratory, they saw a long hallway lined with security doors. "It's like an insane asylum…" Kagura said.

"Yeah… wait," Gintoki said. "What if… what if he's the warden of this place?"

Rinoa gave him a questioning look. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, it's like Kagura said. Maybe he's just looking for people to keep the crazies from escaping. And I can guess," he pointed to the door on the opposite side of the hallway, "That that's his office over there."

"Really…" both girls said in unison.

Sadaharu added an "Auf!" which echoed against the walls. The faint sound of groaning came from further down the hall. "It's a looney!" Kagura whispered.

Then, muffled shouting. This made Rinoa shiver and hold her arms to steady herself. "So this is what he wanted us to guard… this haunting place…"

"So what's with the pit of death back here?" Gintoki asked, looking at the chasm behind them.

"B-Body disposal?" Rinoa asked weakly.

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- Oh lawds, a blonde experiment? Note the magenta bar o' light as well. I think I've pretty much given it away, but she's on the cusp of completion, so I may as well. Besides, for those of you who haven't read the notes back at the Cast List, this is OC x teen!Eve, not Roxas x teen!Eve. Roxas just plays a big role here.

- Xion: "But I like shounen-ai…" "M-My shounen-ai…" I think it's quite obvious to myself that I'm more of Xion's foil specifically rather than the general foil for all of the Organization.

- Yes, my feet are more Caucasian than the rest of me. And I'm Filipino!


	12. 11: Distractions and Images

"Hey, Axel?" Roman asked.

It was 8:50 PM, though the sky didn't show it. Roman had spent that day mostly insulting Xion and providing his two cents in an a conversation regarding the exact time period Amanto Edo was set in and where in the "world" Sweeper's Field was. Throughout the day, he thought of Namine and Castle Oblivion. If he remembered correctly, Axel was sent there to "take care of business" and watch over a certain someone. "What exactly went down over at that 'Castle Oblivion' place?"

"Well, it's sort of hard to explain…" Axel began. "You see, some imposters forming this so-called S.P.O.W. wanted my charge for reasons of their own, so I had to blend in with them until their leader, some old man, blew my cover. Apparently, that group means 'Special Provisions for Other Worlds,' which sounds like some other world's found out about the existence of others."

Roxas listening from across the Grey Area did not hear "Other Worlds," but "Kira." He had had these types of moments, where he would hear and/or see things. When Axel said "Other Worlds," Roxas's mind was overcome with static and briefly caught a glimpse of what looked like the inside of a police building. That was about all he got, as the image quickly disappeared and he was thinking his own thoughts again. "Kira?' Roxas asked himself.

"I fought the old man myself once, but man…" Axel said. "He was a pain in the ass! He teleports more than any of us in the Organization, but you always know when he does because there's like an explosion and a puff of smoke. Somehow, someway, my charge got him. That is… one of them."

"Huh?" Roman asked. "You were talking about only one earlier."

Axel shrugged. "My bad. Not only did I have to look over the kid that took out the old man, but one of our VIPs which went missing after the incident. She's not one of us, but we're the same kind of being, though."

"I take it that she's a Nobody?"

"Yes, siree. Her name is Namine. Got it memorized?"

Roman put his hand to his chin in thought. "Already did. I've heard that name before along with Castle Oblivion, which is why I was asking. So a bunch of imposters were there because…?"

"They were just a reconnaissance team, though out of all of them, the old man didn't seem to belong. Dunno how, he just did. One name out of them caught my interest, Loxleom," Axel added.

"What the fuck is that? Some sort of foreign candy or something?" Roman asked.

"Hell if I know, though he really did like to chow down on chocolate. I had to take care of the little bastard myself because of some unique circumstances."

[He what?] Roxas thought when he heard that.

"Wonder what those were. I think that'll do for tonight. Tomorrow's the last day Vexen's got for that recruitment thing. If he comes back empty-handed, I'm going in myself," Roman said, yawning and stretching at the end of his sentence.

"You really want to do that?" Roxas said. "They might take that as leaving the Organization."

"No prob," Roman said. "I'll just leave a note at the light bridge thing. Heh heh… Loxleom."

Roxas didn't hear Loxleom, but Mello. Another image briefly came to mind, this time of an oddly dressed blonde boy with what he thought was a bowl haircut. [What's going on…?]

* * *

Vexen was distraught as much as a non-existent being could be. [Who could have come in and possibly sabotaged my project! ?] he thought frantically.

He sifted through a possible list of subjects. The dog, Sadaharu, seemed as inept as any other dog. The Caucasian girl would rather smash the laboratory into pieces rather than simple sabotage. The other girl would have done more, but what? And the silver haired man… [Wait a second. The silver haired man! Of course!]

He called in the metal cover for the containment unit and opened the door to his laboratory to confront the one called Gintoki directly. [How dare that diabetic bastard waltz right in and mess with my work! Just how did he get through the first door? Furthermore, can I fix this before the end of tomorrow?]

When he opened the door, on the other side of the hallway lined with storage rooms, was Odd Jobs Gin, standing just outside the doorway. Vexen fixed his beady eyes on the one in question, standing between the two girls and in front of the dog. "YOU," he said, pointing a finger at him and bearing a grim face.

* * *

Roman suddenly felt a chill go down his spine. It happened so suddenly and without warning, causing him to nearly drop his manga. "Hey, what's wrong?" Demyx asked as he caught up to him.

"I dunno… I feel as if though a rape face is being used in the castle," Roman replied. After a pause, he added, "Wait, what?"

* * *

Gintoki shifted his head back. [Me?] he thought.

"You sabotaging prick," Vexen said, now walking down the hallway, continuing to wear his rather disturbing face.

"I'm innocent," Gintoki quickly said as he moved to his right and mounted his scooter once again.

"H-Hey! Gin-chan!" Kagura said.

But before either girl (or the dog) could grab him, he was off, riding his scooter up the twisting ramp. "Gin-san! Where are you going! ?" Rinoa cried out after him. "What did you do!"

"Nothing, but I don't want to catch androgeny! If you want to keep up, get moving now!" he shouted down to the girls.

They took almost no time in mounting Sadaharu, who took off with thumps at every stride. "If we don't get home in time, we'll miss my late night show!" Kagura exclaimed.

"WAIT! I demand reasons!" Vexen called after them, but by the time he got out the door, there was no way he could catch them on foot.

Therefore, he summoned a dark corridor. This one led to the hallway directly outside the entrance to the descent, so he could catch them on their way out. Before he entered it, though, he heard a girlish scream above him, and the sound of what seemed to be thrusters. He looked up, expecting to see the man falling, but there was nothing.

On the other side of the corridor, Vexen summoned his weapon, a shield named Frozen Pride. He expected that Odd Jobs Gin would be armed, though he doubted it. [It's just me they're running from. Still, I cannot let the rest of the Organization know of their presence here!] he thought.

The door opened and Vexen readied himself. However, he was greeted with a tire to the face. This tire happened to still be attached to a vehicle, which happened to be Gintoki's scooter that he decided to bring this day.

He fell to the floor on his back, with an imprint of the tire on his face. The dog soon followed, stepping on Vexen's chest as it passed, panting as it went.

* * *

"So then, there's this green dude—" Roman was telling Xion on their way through the Hall of Empty Melodies.

"Green dude?' Xion repeated.

"Yeah. Badass voice, though that doesn't change his oddness. Still, blows the 'little green men' thing out of the water by far. Wait up."

Roman stopped and listened for something. "What is it?" Xion asked.

Roman shrugged. "Shut up and listen, then."

The two of them stopped and listened for the sound. It was a soft shriek of sorts. "What the hell is that?" Roman said, looking down from the balcony.

There was nothing to be seen on the platform, so it could be assumed that the noise was coming from the chasm below, and it was drawing closer. "Maybe we should get down there and see what it is," Xion said.

"Like this," Roman said, jumping the railing and landing on the walkway leading to the platform below.

He dusted himself off afterwards and beckoned Xion to follow. She was reluctant to do so, however. He tried again, more insistent this time. She swung her legs over the railing and sat on it, having second thoughts. "Look, even if you crash, there's the walkway here. Albeit me," Roman called up.

Xion sighed lightly, closed her eyes tight and pushed herself off the railing. Roxas so happened to walk out onto the balcony moments before she did so, prompting him to run over to where she was and attempted to catch her. He succeeded, but by Xion's hood, straining her breathing. "Dude, let the girl go! You see me down here?" Roman called.

"Wait, what?" Roxas said.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Xion struggled to say.

Roxas did so, letting Xion fall into Roman's arms. "Good thing you're not top-heavy. No, wait…" Roman said as he put her down.

Roxas was intent on going down there the safe way, running through the door on the other side of the balcony. "This could take a while," Roman commented. "He's got that outer walkway if I remember correctly."

"Naught's Skyway," Xion corrected.

"Whatever. And here he is now in record time."

Roxas came at Xion and Roman from the opposite end of the Hall of Empty Melodies, not having broken a sweat. "It's not as long as you think," Roxas said frankly.

"Dude, we've got an unidentified noise coming from below over there, so the best plan of investigation is the quickest way to the source," Roman said. "It's, like, coming from that pseudo-infinity symbol on the platform. Probably a girly man scream."

The three of them turned to face said symbol on the platform. No one was sure why it was there. Many members thought it to be purely cosmetic, though why anyone would have put that there for such purposes was a mystery. "Oh, that? Hey, while we're the only ones here, Saix managed to make that into a stairwell that leads to the lower levels," Roxas said. "Wait, you said a girly man?"

"Yeah, probably because the poor dude's flying about at high speeds for some reason. I bet you 900 munny that it's Vexen, after an attempt at thermite, because he's on fire."

"He doesn't scream that loud. The mission he and I went on days ago had him set on fire because someone disposed of a cigarette in a dumpster we had to duck in at the last second. That, and he was sitting in highly flammable paper," Xion said. "Tell you what: if it is Vexen, I forfeit two manga you won't approve of," she directed at Roman.

"Hm. I'm guessing that if it's not, I gotta forfeit some of my own."

Xion nodded as the noise started to grow in volume. The three backed up towards the door, ready to escape in the event of something flying towards them. There was a loud thunk, followed by the symbol and some surrounding material rising up a few inches. The risen material then fell below the rest of the platform with 13 other thunks following. "There it is," Roxas said.

"Doesn't that mean then that someone's coming up?" Roman asked.

A streak of blue and silver trailing smoke flew from the stairway. The three trailed it with their sights and found that it looked like a man on a motorscooter. For some reason, it had a booster on the back of it. "What the…?" Roman said.

The object turned and arced down and to its left, towards the Nobodies. Its shriek matched the one heard earlier. "You lose," Xion said as she and Roxas summoned their Keyblades.

"Watch me," Roman said, stepping forward.

He ran out onto the platform as the object flew about the air, dropping a paperbound book and a bokken on the balcony above Roxas and Xion. A glass suddenly flew from it, nearly hitting Roman and shattering behind him into several pieces, with some falling over the edge, namely the base of it. The object turned and flew downwards, towards the three on the platform. It circled the platform in a clockwise position to Xigbar, who appeared on his favorite place to be in the Hall: the little sniper's balcony that he claimed. He tried to get a clear lock on it, but it was apparent that, even if he warped and manipulated the light bolt as he was capable of, he wasn't going to get a clean hit on this thing.

Roman turned around, trying to get a sense of what direction the object was going. To Xion, it was clear that he was going to do something involving his fist and the object. "Hey, you think a crazy stunt will save whatever malesafe material you were going to dump?" she said to him.

"Come off of it, will ya?" he said. "Alright, here goes."

He turned so that he was facing counterclockwise to Xigbar (who was not noticed by anyone else just yet). The object flew by once… twice… was that a face? Now Roman had a target. He reeled up a punch and tried once, but only managed to hit some sort of fabric. Trying higher, he missed by a hair. [This last one-!]

He let loose with a right, flaming hook, something he picked up from the Blazer Armors. The results caught the attention of all present. Things seemed to slow down in time as it could be seen that Roman punched half of the object clear off.

* * *

He hung in his smacked state for what seemed to be an eternity. [Maybe it's because of how freaking painful this is!] Gintoki thought.

Not only did something hit him, but the object was on fire. It tried to get him twice before, but that was before it somehow got immolated. It was also odd that even though he was falling backwards, he was moving forwards. Gintoki now knew the difference as time began to speed back up and he felt himself going down. He was bent so that even though his legs were above his head, he faced the ground, and it was coming up fast.

The next thing he knew, he did hit the ground with a hard thud and stopped his movement forward. His face was followed by his torso, then his legs. He could hear stomping below him as it passed his ear and to his right. He then heard a voice say, "And that's how it's done."

"Are you kidding me? You just got a random guy in the face with a flaming punch," another voice said.

"Is he breathing?" a female voice asked.

Gintoki was indeed still breathing. His face was just aching and/or burnt. A loud explosion followed what sounded like some sort of blaster fire going off. "Daaaaamn…" the first voice said. "Not sure if that was necessary, but I'll take it."

"Gin-chan!" Kagura said, with her and Rinoa riding Sadaharu who was bounding out of the stairwell he had flew through.

"Are you okay?" Rinoa asked as she got off the dog and ran over to Gintoki's side.

* * *

"Okay, what the hell's going on here?" Roman asked. "First, this dude and whatever that thing was get their asses handed to them, now he's got a hot girl to help him? And what's with this cultural defiance right here?"

He pointed to the red-clad, blue eyed, orange haired and Caucasian girl who was riding an enormous dog. Roman recognized the breed as Akita Inu, somewhat. "What do you mean by that?" the girl asked.

"Well, British skin, Chinese attire, Irish hair and my personal favorite to bother this girl right behind me," he pointed to Xion, "Japanese chest. But only because it's true."

The girl looked at him quizzically. "He means that you're flat-chested," Xion said, scornfully.

"Yeah, basically."

"Now that… was a low blow," the man Roman punched earlier said, standing up.

The mark on his face was black from the fire of Roman's punch, and it was impressed in somewhat. Xigbar warped in between the younger Nobodies and the man, pointing one Arrowgun in at him. "You know, a better conversation would be why you four are here," he said.

"I don't think we have the liberty of telling you," the girl in blue said.

"Hey, this is our pad y'all crashed. Therefore, we have the right to know what you're doing here," Roman said, keeping the girl in red away by her face with one hand.

"It's like she said," the silver haired man said, his voice becoming more muffled as his face swelled up from what Roman thought was the heat. "We're not at liberty to tell you, so why don't you mfmmffmmf…"

"Dude, I can't understand ya."

And then the man fell to the floor again.

* * *

[Journal Entry]

What the hell just happened? Apparently, some guy came up from the lower levels of the castle that no one really seemed to know about and started to fly all around the Hall of Empty Melodies. I got the sucker in the face, and Xigbar (the pirate) shot down his rather high motorscooter, and I don't mean that in just height. We took it easy on his crew, which was two girls, one being significantly more attractive than the other, and just took them back to their homeworld, Amanto Edo. That nasty punch I gave him should leave a hole in his memory, so I think we're good.

Oh, and before I totally forget, that same dream/nightmare/whatever hasn't changed much. I wonder what'll be added on from here, so I better wrap this thing up so I can find out.

* * *

Here we go. Anything new to report?

… still distorted, still echo-y, still male and female. Longer delay in the action. Not a whole lot, though.

WHOA! That gunshot was NOT there the last time, was it? Wait…

Okay, there's that thing in the distance. Is that… a doorway? There's something there. It's gone. Veered to the left.

"And whatever you do, don't look ba—"

ANOTHER SHOT! That was a little closer than the la—

JESUS CHRIST, a third! ?

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- I have no plans to do much of Sora's early adventures in a separate fic. Too much trouble to go through. I can tell you that I will find a way to kill off most of those who were supposed to go back at Castle Oblivion, and that Sora's gang did have some dealings in the Death Note world.

- This is part two of day nine. The last day of Vexen's deadline is to be recorded in the next one…


	13. 12: Completion and Retrieval

"Fired by a creep… embarrassing!" Gintoki said as he lay on the couch of Odd Jobs Gin back in Amanto Edo. "It's not my fault he's got a creepy face when he's angry. That, and the tire mark he probably still has."

"Well, you didn't stay to explain yourself about whatever it was he was so angry about," Rinoa said, drinking a cup of tea.

"And your motorscooter's history, too. I don't think Sadaharu can take more than me and Rinoa-chan," Kagura said with her mouth full of a rice ball.

"We can just dump the jobs that involve chasing things, then," Gintoki said, putting his legs up on the table. "Besides, we still have the up-front payment along with the day-to-day payment, so I think we'll be set for a while."

Right when he finished saying that, the front door was kicked in. "Shinsengumi!" a voice shouted.

Odd Jobs Gin turned and/or moved to look and see that Hijikata had burst in and was now a one-man search party for something, moving through the area with his sword out. "Hey, hey. Careful with some of those rooms. You might step on someone's PSP or something," Gintoki called out.

After some time of searching, Hijikata came out of one of the rooms and sighed. "Damn, she's not here."

"Who's not here?" Kagura asked, biting into her rice ball when she did.

"The Shinsengumi are looking for a potentially dangerous criminal. We suspect that she's Amanto, but like your friend there, you can't really tell them apart from humans," he said, pointing to Kagura. He added, "If a building or something large goes up in flames, contact us immediately."

He sheathed his sword and put his hands in his pockets as he walked out the doorway, as he had kicked the door in. "Count on us, Mayora," Gintoki said after him.

"It's not Mayora, it's Katsura," a voice said from the doorway.

"Oh, good afternoon, Katsura," Rinoa said.

"A fire Amanto? Well, that may not be entirely accurate," Katsura said as his usual partner, Elizabeth, a strange penguin thing, came up behind him. "Yes, she's not of this world, but not in the sense of planets in this galaxy."

"Look, Zura. We've already had this talk with our last client, some creepy androgynous person. That's a load of BS. Humans are humans," Gintoki said, laying back on the couch.

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura. Was he wearing black robes?"

Sadaharu barked in confirmation. "That can't be good," Katsura said, tipping his straw hat down.

"Why's that?" Rinoa asked.

"He may have been one of the S.P.O.W. (Special Provisions for Other Worlds), a group investigating other planes of existence. The reason why this is bad is because most other worlds shouldn't be aware of the true existence of others. For all they know, other universes exist only in things such as Jump."

"So the Spow is bad?" Kagura asked.

"It's not Spow, it's S.P.O.W. Anyway, if you see those black robes again, try to keep the knowledge of other worlds to a minimum. It could cause more trouble for the origin world of S.P.O.W. And if you can, deal with them. I can help when I can, but not if I don't know they're here."

"We'll be sure to keep tabs on them. Goodbye, Katsura," Rinoa said, picking up the fallen door.

"Thank you, and good day," Katsura said as he and Elizabeth passed Rinoa and left the area.

"It's not Katsura, it's Zura," Gintoki said as he got up to get himself some food from the kitchen.

"Why…?"

* * *

A cold feeling. That was the first thing she felt. A cold feeling. She didn't know how she knew that, but she just knew. She then went on to have a floating feeling along with being curled up. She didn't open her eyes, though. She was still asleep, to an extent. There was something coming into her body through her mouth… wait. [Is that my mouth?] she thought.

She then felt herself sinking. She couldn't see, still, but she knew that she was going down. Then, she stopped at something solid. She went from being curled up to leaning on her side against something. She was in sitting position, she somehow figured, and leaning against something on her left. The material coming into her body was soon replaced by something far lighter. She expand her chest a little more, but she still remained asleep. The girl stirred a little when she heard a dull noise, but continued to sleep.

"There you are. Number sixteen," she heard.

[Six…teen?] she thought. [What is sixteen…?]

"What is… sixteen?" she repeated aloud and softly.

"Could you care to repeat that?"

[Re…peat?]

This time, her eyes fluttered, but remained shut. "That's it. I realize that this may be a shock, but I promise that you will gain more comfortable accommodations soon."

[What are those things I'm hearing? What IS hearing?]

Her eyes slowly opened at last, revealing her magenta eyes. She saw a vast area with blinking lights and steady lights. She sat upright and away from whatever she was leaning against to look around a bit better, in spite of her lethargy. She felt her eyelids being heavy after setting her gaze on a man in front of a block of material. "No, no, no, don't fall back asleep!" the voice said.

Another dull noise. This time, she felt something going up against her cheek, and hearing a squeaking noise practically next to her. "Well, okay, you can go back to sleep. However, I strongly advise that you stay off of the—"

A quick falling sensation, followed by pain. Getting herself back up, she opened her eyes again slowly and rubbed the side of her face where she had felt the pain. "—glass," the voice finished, softer but clearer.

The man approached her slowly, as if she could be easily scared away. However, she was too focused on making the pain go away to notice him. She looked up slowly and saw his face, which scared her a little, but didn't prompt her to stand and run or just stand. "Do not fear. My presence and significance to you will come with time. However, there is something that must be done. First, your attire and mobility, or rather, the other way around."

She didn't understand much of that, but she did figure that it was time for her to stand. It was a little awkward at first, and she fell down. Her second attempt was more fluid, and she kept herself up. She then tried to walk past the man, who seemed to be merely observing for something. To her, walking was so… familiar already. [Why does this seem so familiar? And what is this voice in my head? What is a voice?] So many questions circled through her head.

"Hm, mobility familiarity already, I see. Very well, if you would follow me," the man said as he walked to a part of the wall. It seemed to open up from the middle and disappear to the sides.

She followed him to one of the strange patterns on the walls to her left and right. The room itself was lighter than the one they were just in, but smaller. She looked around and saw another strange panel on the wall on the far end of the room. The pattern in front of her lost the strange cross on it and moved in. When she looked in, there were what looked like fabrics hanging from poles on both side walls and the back wall had something else… something odd. "Choose an outfit and report back in the laboratory when you are finished. You are allowed only one for the time being," the man said.

The girl tilted her head at the fabrics. "Outfits?" she asked softly.

But the man was gone already. He was moving towards the golden paneling on the wall. Curious, she walked into the room with the fabrics and first moved towards the odd object at the back wall. When she first looked at it, she saw a girl. What she saw was rather fuzzy, as in transparent lines going over what she was seeing…

* * *

Cassidy Hopewell looked at herself in the mirror she always kept on her door. As always she looked absolutely darling in her usual Lapin Angelique attire, which was a popular brand in Metro. One of thirteen, actually. However, having just woken up, she was only in her M'sieur Lapin pajamas that she cherished so dearly.

* * *

The girl blinked and the fuzzy image was gone. She now saw a blonde girl whose hair was almost as long as her. Her magenta eyes stared intently back at her. For some reason, she recognized this girl. This was herself. Paying more attention, she noticed that she was half-naked. She gasped and covered herself as best as she could with her arms, but it didn't seem to be enough. "W-What the?" she said.

With little warning, her hair moved to cover herself. She didn't know how it happened, it just did. And she was okay with this. She blinked again.

* * *

Cassidy picked her usual standby piece, a goth doll dress she modified herself to not be as frilly as they usually are. Unlike most Angelique Freaques, she wasn't much for the amount of frill and such.

* * *

The girl held a black fabric to herself. She didn't really know how this came to be, it just did.

* * *

She put on the dress with little trouble, another handy homemade modification. Lapin Angelique garments always tended to be a little troublesome to put on.

* * *

The girl was surprised to find herself in the black fabric. There was nothing to cover her arms, save for a tube of the fabric she decided to slip on at the moment. She only managed to cover her right arm, and it was everything from her hand to her shoulder and armpit. The fabrics on her legs stretched comfortably from her feet to somewhat above half her upper leg. She didn't know how she ended up like this, though she was relieved that she was no longer half naked. [Why did I feel the way I did, though?]

Following what the man had said, she walked over to the golden lined panel he was going towards earlier. To her surprise, it slid from the middle into the walls. She stepped into the dark room where there was a swirling oval of darkness to her right. There was something on the block to its left. Something white. She went over and looked at it. She somehow knew it meant, "Do not fear the dark portal. Step through and keep walking until you reach the end."

She did so without hesitation. It wasn't as dark as it initially appeared. She could still see her hands and body clearly. When she saw something in the darkness, she ran towards and into it.

* * *

"So you really expect him to get in from here?" Axel asked.

The quaint little walkway and area known as Nothing's Call was the "main" way in and out of the Castle That Never Was. It was also the only lower section of the castle members publically accessed and knew about. If members wished to go into the city, they would have to leave from here instead of by dark corridor. That is what they're told, though. "He is under the usual impression," Saix said.

"He's smart enough to come up with clever plans, so don't expect him to just go up that light bridge in here."

"He is to go through here so that we have proof of his success."

"Ah, his last day to find the girl, right?'

Saix silently nodded and looked down the light bridge. Nothing yet. "Now, about Castle Oblivion, in detail."

"I told you already," Axel said, "some imposters doing recon of the universe."

"That will not do," Saix said. "Where did they originate from, and when?"

"Don't know. They seemed awfully interested in Sora, though. Loxleom even went so far to call him the absent founder. Although, how they even got into CO, I dunno."

Saix looked at him with his gazing eyes. "Have you heard of the Hidden Leaf Villiage?" he asked.

Axel chucked a little. "Ninja world, that one. Yeah, they've got some good stuff on them, but they're never clear about their technology. Wait, you're not thinking…"

"The old man you presumed to be the leader of them? What did he look like?"

"Hard to say. He had the robes on, so there wasn't much to see. Besides, Sora took care of him, so there's no way to double-check."

Saix closed his eyes and looked down. He opened his eyes again and looked down the light bridge. There was something coming up. A black object. "That him?" Axel asked.

The object drew closer. "He is alone," Saix noted.

When Vexen got to the foot of the bridge, Saix gave him a cold stare like he gave every other member of the Organization. Vexen only smiled and chuckled. "And here you are, doubting me," he said.

"Where is the girl?" Saix demanded.

"As I said at the last meeting, she is a new Nobody. Let her take in the sights," Vexen said, moving aside and presenting a girl lagging behind, looking all around.

She finally reached the foot of the light bridge and saw Axel and Saix. Axel was not a very imposing figure to her, especially when he reached out his hand. "Hey there, girl. So, you're going to be the new kid in the castle? Well, if you must know some people already, I'm Axel. That over there with the cold gaze is Saix."

Seeing Saix, the girl backed away a little. "And you probably already know a bit about Vexen over here. Got it all memorized?" Axel said.

"Mem…orized," she said in a trance-like state. Her way of saying it reminded Axel of Roxas' first days in the Organization.

"You liar, she IS a zombie," Axel joked.

Vexen only grunted. "When the boys return, another gathering is at hand. Saix, tell the superior of this."

With that, Vexen walked up the walkway with the girl behind him. "Well, what do you know? He pulled it off. He isn't Xigbar, but—" Axel started.

"When you have a chance, eliminate him," Saix said, cutting Axel off.

After saying that, Saix walked away as well. "What do you mean by that?" Axel asked after him.

"He failed to complete a task of utmost importance. That is all you need to know."

Turning around, though not all the way, Saix added, "And on a more mundane note, he lost a bet."

* * *

The Room of Gathering. Again. [Damn my fear of extreme heights…] Roman thought as he sat in his throne, crosslegged to avoid falling off easily. Everyone else was present on their own thrones, save for Vexen. [Heh, dude finally get smacked?]

"Brothers and sisters. Vexen… has succeeded," Xemnas said to all.

A collective "what" was thought by the three youngest Nobodies. Another came from Saix.

Roman pushed himself as far back in his throne as he could and looked down. He saw Vexen and a hooded figure. The girl he was looking for over the past ten days or so. [Hell if I can remember time easily,] Roman thought.

"As you may all know, ten or more days is a stretch to find any missing persons, existing or not," Vexen said. "But possibility still lies in wait for those willing to search for it. My case is the best example for this statement, for I have, against many odds, found the sixteenth!"

Xemnas materialized letters of a name which floated down to the girl. Roman couldn't see the letters because they were so small from where he was. He counted seven of them. It seems that Xemnas was unaware of the name as well, as he squinted his eyebrows a little at the sight of the name he formed. They floated down to the girl and the re-naming sequence initiated. The swirling letters, the X, it was all there. However, as with his own name, the X shook, though more violently, causing Vexen to step back and to the side. The X shattered, but other letters followed. Xemnas raised himself up, a look of angered confusion on his face. The girl didn't budge.

The fragments rose up from the ground, forming three letters this time. None of the original letters seemed to rise up. When they formed in front of her, Vexen read the result from in front of her. Copies of her name began to appear in bursts of light in front of every member present, with Roman being the last to see the result. "Eve?' both Roman and Vexen asked aloud.

[Another lack of X…] Roxas thought as the name faded.

"So… that is what she is to be deemed. Number Sixteen. Eve. Her title will be pending until she completes a certain amount of missions. We must see to what it is she can accomplish in combat against the Heartless," Xemnas said.

Throughout the Room of Gathering, thoughts were going around. [So… this is her.] Roman thought.

Roxas thought, [So she's the girl that was lost in the city… so what about the one I messed up?]

Xion thought, [She has her hood up. Why do I think of myself when I see that?]

Luxord thought, [My, my. In figure, she is an exquisite specimen. But what of when the hood comes off?]

Demyx thought, [THAT'S the lost girl? She's gotta be a keeper!]

Axel thought, [So wait… this isn't the city girl? Then who the hell is she?]

"Zexion. You will be in charge of detailing the system to Number Sixteen," Xemnas said.

At this, Vexen said nothing, but his face was a frown. This was indecernable from his usual expression to the untrained eye, however, so no one suspected anything from it.

* * *

[Journal Entry]

So she's here. Not much to say, because there wasn't much to see. Also, what happened with her name? It started out as seven letters, but then went to three. What's up with that? Also, Shadow Glob mission in Youkai Academy earlier today, albeit before we were introduced to the new girl. Not too bad, but I wish I got a video of Roxas running around and possibly screaming like a little girl. Wait, don't you need a heart for girly screams? Dammit. I want that video!

On a side note, there was some adding on to my recurring dream, but is it good or bad? There were three gunshots, one causing the scream, another cutting off the sentence

* * *

Roman stopped. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to finish the entry. Thinking of the sentence cut off by the second gunshot made him tense. It also prompted his eyes to leak, which he managed to get before they came into contact with any writing. [Just what is this dream?] he thought. [Is it a memory, or do I need to lay off of something before bed? And who are those people in the dream I keep hearing, and why can't I understand them at all? I need answers, but I dunno what to do. Can't run off, so that's out of the question.]

Roman closed his journal and turned the desk lamp off. He climbed into bed in only a white tanktop and boxer shorts and pulled the covers over himself to let sleep take him in.

* * *

He recognized the area as the castle library, an expansive room inhabited usually by Vexen or Zexion, with other members seldom entering for any reason. It held a grand selection of all sorts of books ranging from old almanacs, dictionaries, fiction and, most importantly to Roman, manga. Why the Organization would keep manga in their library was beyond Roman completely.

He walked around the tables and bookcases to find that he was the only one there. "Okay… this is creepy," he said to himself.

Scratching his head as he began to do a walking double check of the library, he noticed books taken from various parts of various bookcases missing. When he went back to the reading tables, he noticed a small circular wall of them surrounding one chair. He walked over to it and started to take books from the top to see who was in there. Taking apart one column, he saw a girl with her head in her arms on the table. She wore clothing Roman identified as gothic Lolita, though in moderation in comparison to others he had seen wearing the stuff. "Hey," he called. "Wake up."

No response. He figured that if he could get the other books out of the way, he could get to her easier. [So how do I get these other ones out of here quicker?]

His answer was a left jab, sending the books flying in a cone away from him. "Hey, wake up!" he called to the girl again.

Still no response. He reached over to push her. "How'd you even get in here—"

He stopped and looked at his gloved hand. Blood. He wiped it off on a part of his robes and looked back at the girl. His eyes went wide with horror as he now saw the girl's arms and head in a pool of blood, though her eyes were still closed like she were asleep. "Are you okay?" Roman asked as he reached over to push her over again.

She fell out of her chair and hit the ground. There was a wound in her chest that was bleeding, and she wasn't moving afterwards. Roman couldn't move as he looked at the sight. He was absolutely frozen. The girl wasn't moving, and she continued to bleed all over the floor, making a blood pool that continued to expand. Soon, half of her total body was in it, and her hair was all spread out and in the blood.

Roman couldn't even bring himself to make any sort of noise. How he could find this horrifying, he didn't know. He blinked once, and the next thing he saw was that the girl now had different garments on, and her hair was longer, reaching nearly the ends of the blood pool. The girl kept changing as her entire body seemed to turn to static between the first and the second outfits and hair lengths. Roman gripped his head in pain, as a newfound strain found itself on his mind. He groaned and fell to his knees, getting them in the blood. Static overtook his vison as it went into third person, giving him a full view of himself writhing at the pain in his head. Static kept coming and going as he fell on his side to the ground, continuing to grip his head, wishing the pain would stop. The static faded in slowly, overtaking his vision completely, drowning out any other noise. Without warning, a monitor switched off.

* * *

God… it hurts…

So we're back in the original dream, now. What the hell was all that back there, though?

There's the talking, the same voices—hold on. The male voice seems eerily close. It's like… practically coming from my own mouth! The girl sounds to be in front of my vision.

...

There's gunshot A. Somewhat above me. Movement, now. The object in the distance. I swear, that's a door.

"And whatever you do, don't look ba—"

Gunshot B! Dammit! Why is that one the one with the most impact—

Gunshot C! Okay, so it didn't get me, but now what?

Footsteps fading. So I've stopped moving? I can only guess so…

* * *

[Authors Notes]

- Holy sweet Jesus, my longest chapter ever!

- Writing for a newborn bioweapon is NOT an easy task. Having to re-imagine things is a pain. Also, the outfit described is based on her in-game sprite in Jump Ultimate Stars.

- I think I have to change the rating given the dream sequence up there. I'm not intentionally going for gory, but I'm not taming the action for shit.


	14. 13: Initial Meeting

[Journal Entry]

If I can find the entry, I entered something about the most bizarre dream I've had so far in my remembrance, and I know for sure it was a dream due to the sheer surreality of it. In fact, its surreality is primarily why I can't remember much of the damn thing, I bet. Not too gory, but not exactly tame. What the hell's up with that?

The reason why I'm writing this so early as opposed to the end of the day where the good stuff is primarily links to that dream being followed by the usual one, with the echoing voices and gunshots. It's been like, what, a couple days since I had those dreams? I haven't seen much of Zexion OR the new girl since then. Also, a couple of days is pretty long for a guy with sixteen or so years missing from his memory—what?

* * *

Out of sheer boredom, Roman wore his robes after the day's mission. Collecting hearts in Twilight Town was never a hard task, and today's run was shorter than ever, so he figured he'd have time to burn blending in with the rest of the Organization. Even Saix noticed the speed of the completion of the mission, given that Roman was by himself. "It hasn't even been over two hours and a quarter yet," Saix commented at the time.

"It's been only two days, so there's no need to think that a trend's being set," Roman replied.

From the Grey Area, Roman looked around the castle for the library. He figured that he would see what Zexion dragged in from a random world the last time he was here. Even for the Cloaked Schemer, Zexion was never one to stray from a good book, going so far as to purchase some simply to add to the library. There was still room left on the shelves, but it was quickly diminishing.

Roman, however, felt a slight uneasiness in searching for the library. His dream from days before, though hazy now, still lingered in his mind in a red mist. He remembered that it was in the library, and he was the only one in there for a time. He figured that he was going there to help him remember the dream more, even if it was unsettling. [Besides,] he thought, [If I'm a Nobody, it shouldn't leave much of an impact, then.]

At last, he found the library, along with Zexion at one of the reading tables. A short passing-by greeting sufficed for both, and Roman was on to a random section. He found himself in fiction L-P by author last name. The books on the higher shelves were accessed by tiles rising up from the ground, carrying whomever up to the desired shelves. In order to stop a tile from rising up to the very top (even if it rose and fell slowly), or even get it started, a member would have to stomp a foot on it. Roman had no need for this function at this time, as he found the desired book on one of the lower shelves. Patterson, James. [Bingo.]

Taking a book from said author from the shelves, he made his way to one of the 8 reading tables present on the other end of the library, separate from the bookshelves. Each table was enough to support two members surrounded by stacks of books. Roman picked a table separate from Zexion and sat himself on a chair facing away from him. When reading in the library, he had a habit of putting his free arm behind the chair when it wasn't doing anything. He picked a James Patterson book due to the short nature of the chapters of the book series he was reading this day: he could be halfway done with a book of this series in a matter of a day. This was helped by his usually fast reading habits and the size of the font, along with the action entailed within the books. [We still need to grab the volumes of the manga as they come out,] Roman thought. [Though I always think of her as a brunette for some reason. And with Katara's voice.]

After getting to the halfway point of his book, Roman took a break to stretch and yawn, noticing that it was not even noon yet. Only 11:22 AM. [Time's probably recovering from a sugar rush today,] he thought as he looked at his watch. [Hm. Maybe I can go ahead and try to look for the new girl, Eve. I can probably catch her with her hood off.]

Marking his place in his book with a random scrap of paper he had in his pocket, he stood up from the table and stretched some more, cracking a few neckbones in the process. When he turned towards the door, something caught his eye. Something golden. He initially ignored it until he got to the door, when he stopped himself as it opened. [I wasn't imagining things and dreaming on the spot again, was I? It's only happened once, but better check again to make absolutely sure.]

When he turned in to scan the room again, he saw Zexion reading the same book from when Roman initially entered. Looking left from Zexion, he saw what the golden object was. Hair. There was a girl sitting at one of the tables by herself, and she was facing away from Roman, so the only thing he saw was a downwards mass of golden, long hair. Silently, he crept over to Zexion, who looked up and noticed Roman. "Can I help you with something, Roman?" he asked.

"Yeah…" Roman said softly. "Who's that, and how'd she get into the castle?" He pointed to the girl, who was still facing away from the two.

"Ah. I see that you don't recognize her without the robes on," Zexion replied.

"Huh?"

Roman looked questioningly at the girl, who hadn't turned around or even raised her head yet. "Wait… that's the new girl?" he asked.

"Yes, that is Eve. She requested that she spend the remainder of her orientation without her robes, though at Axel's prompting," Zexion said.

"Did she ever say anything herself about them?"

Zexion shook his head. "She has not expressed any self-made choices as of yet. She has only done things that people have prompted or told her to do, my commands included. For example: Eve, would you pick another table to sit at?"

She got up and turned around. Roman finally saw the girl's face. It was dull as a new Nobody could be, yet there was something to her magenta eyes that Roman found himself drawn to. Eve looked around the room, as if though deciding which one to pick. Whenever Roman moved to a new table, he just went to a random table, not caring which one. However, Eve was no such wild card. "Which one?" she asked, turning to Zexion.

Her voice was soft enough that, in most other places, neither Nobody would have heard that clearly. "Any table," Zexion said.

"Which one?" she repeated.

"Why not just try this one over here?" Roman suggested, pulling up the chair closest to him.

Without a word, Eve picked up her book and walked over to the chair, with Roman moving out of the way. He was somewhat allured by the motion of her hair. "You see? She has not made any free choice decisions," Zexion said.

"Hate to say this in front of her, but maybe she was a meek person as a human," Roman suggested. "So how she survived that city is a pure wonder."

Eve looked at her book, which she had not re-opened just yet. "What defines a human?" she asked.

"That is of no concern as of yet to you," Zexion said. "Here is another book," he added, pushing her current book away with a new one, which she proceeded to open and read.

"Well, she certainly has a love for the written word already," Roman commented.

"This was already established when I first brought her here. When she had finished the first book I presented to her, she asked for another. When that one was done, she asked for another. Over the course of the past two days, she has read through the most recent written encyclopedia series, a dictionary, a book of idioms (of all things!), and three works of fiction, one being an omnibus," Zexion said.

Roman staggered a little after hearing that. "Ho-ly shit," he said.

Eve opened her mouth to say something, but Zexion quickly covered it with his hand, not looking away from his own book which he re-opened. "Yeah, you're not gonna want to repeat everything you hear ME say. I don't trust how some things would sound coming from you already," Roman said.

"The boy has a rather 'colorful' vocabulary," Zexion remarked. "Yet he still has restraint, when he chooses to use it."

"He uses profanity," Eve said.

"Was that a question or a statement? Anyways, I truly apologize in advance, but unfortunately, it's something you'll have to get used to along with other weird things in the castle and other places," Roman said as he put his hand to his face, slipping his fingers underneath his glasses. "In due time, you'll get familiar with that 'other places' bit."

"Yes. Tomorrow, we begin introductions to the other members of the Organization," Zexion said.

"Organization?" Eve asked softly.

"Yeah. Excluding you, there are fifteen of us," Roman said, now putting his hands behind his head.

"I know…" Eve stopped to count with her fingers. "Four. Four out of fifteen. Axel, Saix, Vexen, and Zexion. Axel asked if I had his name memorized."

"He'll do that," Zexion said. "Wait, only those four?"

Eve nodded slowly. "Ooh, that ain't good. Can you guess the number of the leader?" Roman said.

"Number one," Eve said.

"That is Xemnas, a name you definitely need to know. Otherwise, you're Dusk food."

Eve looked at him. Her magenta gaze was icy, but certainly not to Saix's degree. "Food for those who dwell primarily in the time between the light and darkness?" she asked.

One just so happened to flutter by and Roman took the opportunity to grab it out of the air and snap it taut. "Uh, no. It's one of these things, actually. It's also with a capital D," he said.

When he let it go, it slithered and wobbled away up into the air, hitting a wall and collapsing to the floor in a rope-like heap. "I don't think I've ever seen one do THAT," Roman said, pointing to the Dusk. "That was probably my fault."

Eve continued to stare. It was only a little unsettling to Roman, primarily because she was a girl, and an attractive one at that.

* * *

She didn't know what to make her face at the boy's comment. She didn't even know what her face looked like. She did see, however, that the boy moved back only a tiny bit, but didn't take his eyes off of her. "So what did you mean by 'Dusk food?'" she asked him.

"It would be best if you didn't find out at all," Zexion said, looking away from his book to look at Eve.

She continued to read her book as the boy scanned her up and down from where he stood. She wore the same clothing, as she had come to know it as now, from when she first started remembering things. She couldn't call it "birth" because she felt like there was something she missed before she woke up for the first time. All Eve could think of it as was the time she first started to remember things.

"Hey, do you know if she got that outfit here, or was she wearing that when she was found?" the boy asked Zexion, pointing to Eve.

Zexion took a breath to start replying, but Eve cut him off. "I was found with this clothing."

Both the boy and Zexion stared at her for a bit. "I take it that you yourself just found this out?" the former asked the latter.

"Yes…"

Eve continued reading in silence as the boy left without another word. She heard the whoosh of the door opening, but there was a slight delay between that and the whoosh of the door closing, as if the boy stopped to look back. "In all honesty…" Zexion said to her.

* * *

"Those robes would look a little ridiculous on her," Roman said to himself, going walking about the streets of Twilight Town.

Along the way, he taped a note to one of the large storage tanks(?) in Nothing's Call back at the castle that one would pass by on their way out. It simply read, "BORED. Will be back later."

Roman tried over and over again to visualize the girl, Eve, in the Organization's robes with the hood off, but whatever he tried; she always looked a little odd to him with them on. [So even though I don't like wearing this thing,] he thought, [I make it look good. That's weird, yet kickass at the same time.] "Awesome," he said aloud.

Underneath, the station trolley rolled by. He wondered how anyone would keep that thing running if no one ever seems to ride the thing. To him, everywhere was easily accessible by foot. The trolley would only really be needed if it went around the entire town. [But no, it's in this limited little area. That's real gay.]

He stopped dead in his tracks. Without warning, he gripped his head in despair and yelled out, "GAH! Why the hell'd I say that! ?"

Calming down, he said to himself, "Ah, shit… it's bad enough that I have to use words like that to get my burns through to Roxas and Xion… I can't imagine how badly I may damage Eve's brain…"

Another pause. His left eye twitched. "WHY THE HELL WOULD I PUT THE PRETTY GIRL IN DANGER! ?"

* * *

That day on the clock tower was rather uneventful. However, none of them would have had it any other way. They spent their time laughing, pushing, telling jokes and eating their ice cream. However, no one noticed that Roman still had the ice cream bag present. It had an extra sea salt ice cream in it.

* * *

"Here, try this," Roman said, presenting a still-wrapped ice cream to Eve.

"Oh, you had an extra?" Roxas asked.

"Hey, I figured that she should know what someone being nice looks like. Besides, it shouldn't keep the poor girl up at night, right?"

Roxas only sighed and went through the door to his room. Eve unwrapped the ice cream from the end where the stick was and took it out of the wrapper, keeping it in her hand. She held up the light blue confection and looked at it curiously. "What is this?"

"It's ice cream. What, you've never seen a picture of it?" Roman said with a smile.

She shook her head and then took a small bite from the top. After taking the bite, she looked at it again. "It's so cold… and sweet. And… salty?"

"I've never really understood how sweet and salty are supposed to get together, actually," Roman stated, scratching the back of his head. "I personally prefer the two to stay apart."

When he looked at Eve again, she was taking larger bites out of the ice cream, but that wasn't saying much. She was also eating faster, as well. "It melts so quickly in my mouth."

"It… wait, it does that?" Roman asked, apparently never having tried sea-salt ice cream himself. "Well, never tried that particular flavor, so I wouldn't know."

"There are more?" she asked.

"Yeah, but I only tried one for tonight. When you start on your missions, let me know, and I'll get some arrangements underway."

Eve had finished half of the ice cream when she noticed something on the stick. She quickly finished the ice cream off and looked at the stick quizzically. "Hey, what's up? Is there a spot on the stick? That can be easily explained," Roman said.

"No… there is a crown, and a word," Eve said. "Winner."

Roman looked surprised. "Winner? Huh. I dunno what you win, though. I think Roxas is keeping his own Winner stick and as clueless about it as you are."

"He also won?"

"Apparently so. Ask him tomorrow," he said as he walked through the door to his room, leaving Eve in the hallway with her ice cream stick.

* * *

[Obviously, this means something good, but what?] Eve asked herself.

She gazed at the stick, looking at the crown at the top, where it seemed to mark the ice cream's halfway point. [Do the other flavors have this?]

She walked further down the hallway to her own room, which was sparely accommodated save for a closet by the glassless window and a bed against the wall. Walking over to its nighstand, she placed the winner stick on it when she noticed that there was also something else on it. Someone put a clock there. It was a basic one, like the clock she had seen a picture of in one of the books she had read recently. All it had on it was the symbol of the Organization and the clock numbers in Roman numerals. One shared a spot with thirteen, two shared a spot with fourteen, three shared a spot with fifteen, and four shared a spot with sixteen. There was a note stuck to its side. It read, "Got it custom-made. It's set to ring at 8 AM. The reason why it's here is because—let's face it: no one can really tell the time by the sky in this world. Hope you like it! Number XV, Roman."

Eve picked up the clock, which silently ticked away so that she had to put it to her ear to hear it. She gazed at it with her eyes then set it down next to the Winner stick. [He said something about being nice… but what is his name?] she thought as she pulled the covers over herself.

[He gave me the ice cream, so what do I do in response? How can I decide…]

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- Big moot points to the person who can guess the book series that I picked out back at the library.

- The next chapter is the big, true game-starting sequence, like the end of Roxas' part in KHII, so keep your underwear on.


	15. 14: Trial

Roxas walked out into the Grey Area as he did every day. Being a Nobody with no memory of who he was, there wasn't much else to do other than missions and the clock tower after those missions. He woke up extremely early on this day for reasons beyond him: it was only 7:30 AM according to the clock that Roman had bought (or stolen, Roxas didn't really know for sure) for him when he left his room. Even Saix wasn't out this early, yet there he was, standing in his same spot. What caught Roxas's attention was the fact that he yawned when he entered. Roxas, or even anyone else in the Organization never saw him yawn for any reason.

Roxas looked left and right to see if anyone else was awake and up. No one. Apparently, something was up. [Roman,] he thought to himself.

Roxas went back to the member's quarters and sought out Roman's room. Upon entering, it was devoid of the desired Nobody. There were no bedsheets tied to a part of the bed, nor was there a note. His night clothes were deposited in one of the laundry hampers that Roman had found somewhere, so he must have left already. However, one thing didn't ring quite right with Roxas: Roman didn't take missions so early. There was also the issue of Saix yawning, indicating that he had been up for quite some time.

When Roxas took a look at the desk that had Roman's computer and space for his journal and other things, he noticed that the journal was open, and that there was writing on the page. He walked over to the desk and read the journal…

* * *

[Journal Entry]

Trying something different today, other than my unusually early journal writing stints. I'll take care of today's mission, then I'll see if I can catch Eve in the library again. Why, some journal invaders may ask? Yes, I'm directing these words at you, Roxas and/or Xion.

Well, leaving Eve with our resident Person-Who-Smells-Others alone doesn't seem like a good thing, and not for perverse reasons, no. I mean that she won't know a whole lot about knowing the workings of the active field. Granted, I bet she gets mission training that I've missed out on, but someone's gotta tell her about street smarts that she'll eventually have to develop. As a contingency plan in the event of a vacation, I can convince Saix to get me to Innocent Europe. I ought to give that Allen dude a piece of my mind for those lasers.

* * *

[Typical. Doing something nuts as usual,] Roxas thought to himself as he left the room. [So where is Eve now? When does she get up and start her training for the day?]

Unable to stifle his curiosity, he sought out Eve's room, which was indistinguishable from the other rooms by door. This led to him having a pillow thrown at him by Larxene. When he found Eve's room at last, he cringed at the door whooshing open so suddenly. If she was still asleep, he didn't want to find out how short HER temper was. He slowly crept into the middle of the room, where he looked around and took in what he could. Coming in from the room, the bed was against a wall to the left, like all the beds for all the bedrooms. There was also a nightstand, something not usually seen at times. The presence of a clock caught Roxas's attention, but he had to keep himself from walking over to pick it up, fearing that he might set it off.

To the right of the window was a dresser, dark blue in color. On its left side, a mirror nearly as tall as the dresser itself. There was no desk to speak of on an initial scan of the room, but only because it was to the right of the door if you faced it from inside the room. It had no computer or journal, so its top was completely blank, save for some patterning centering the Nobody symbol on it. Roxas heard soft breathing, barely audible were it not for him holding his breath, which he unwittingly exhaled.

It seemed that Eve was barely bothered by this, if at all, for she barely moved. She lay on her side, facing Roxas, complicating his situation. Slowly, he tip-toed out of the room, careful not to bump into anything else. When the door closed, he let out a loud sigh of relief and proceeded to the Grey Area once more.

* * *

"That punk…" Roman muttered to himself as he sat in the Grey Area. "How I was supposed to know he was stalling for a Chinese chick?"

Roman not only sported a lack of glasses, but he had managed to have them broken in his scuffle with Allen Walker, so he had to keep the pieces in his robe pocket. Thankfully, it only split at the bridge, so he could find someone to deal with it easily. He saw Roxas walk in and huffed a breath. "Eh? Hey, what happened to your glasses?" he asked.

"I tried (quote-on-quote) 'mugging' that Allen dude from Innocent Europe when some Chinese girl came around to back him up," Roman replied. "One kick later, and I'm nearsighted."

"So that's why you wear them…" Roxas said. "I figured it was to make you look good."

"Well… that too."

Roxas looked around the Area for Saix, but the Nobody wasn't there. The only ones in the Grey Area were Roxas, Roman and Xion, who had recently walked in. "How'd you even get there?" Roxas asked.

"A game of 'Poke the Bear.' Or rather, 'Poke the Wolf,'" Roman replied with a slight chuckle.

"Why do you make a living off of bothering other people?" Xion asked.

"Hey, I'll honestly admit that the only one that I bother on a daily basis is you," Roman said, gesturing to Xion. "So if you want me to be more bearable, take it easy on the scissors and drink some damn milk, woman! Some of the other guys may correct me when I call you woman!"

Xion delivered a painful slap to the left side of Roman's face. He cringed after the impact and mouthed, "Ouch!" He said aloud, "I've already been kicked! I do not need to be slapped!"

He walked out of the Grey Area, leaving the two Keyblade Nobodies alone with only themselves… or so they thought. At this point, they had just noticed a man in a red unzippered jacket, a sort of brown t-shirt and blue jeans to the right (their left) of the way out of the Area. He wore a cap which was under the hood, with it all obscuring the top half of his face, letting only his mouth and nose show. He also had a green carry-all bag with him and he kept his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Who are you?" Roxas asked the man.

The man turned to the Nobodies. "I'm here on official business. Business," he replied. "You got the cash or other little tokens, I got the stuff. No cash, I only got advice."

"What kind of money?" Xion asked.

"Munny, dollars, gil, yen, I take it all. So long as you got enough of whatever it is you're paying with. I'm still setting up shop though, so I'm just here on break until I have to get back to work, which is actually about right now."

Then the man left. [Work on what?] the Nobodies thought in unison, though they didn't know what the other was thinking.

* * *

"And the slap mark I got here," Roman said after putting the pieces of his glasses on the reading table, "Was from Xion a few minutes ago. Therefore, it's not really relevant right now."

Zexion looked at the glasses, then at Roman. "Just what in the world would have broken your glasses?" he asked.

"Ancient Chinese secret. That's all you need to know."

Roman looked around the library from where he sat. His train of thought was that where Zexion was, Eve would be around. At least, for a while. However, the girl was nowhere to be seen, even when Roman got up to look around the bookcases. He got an aerial view from one of the floating tiles, but Eve was still nowhere to be found. Not even a hooded figure, if any. He walked back to the spot at the table where he had put his glasses pieces and asked, "Hey, where'd Eve go, anyways?"

"I believe she is about to show her combat abilities in the Hall of Empty Melodies," he replied, closing his book and standing up.

"Oh, really? Sweet."

"You say that because you want to jump in for yourself," Zexion said.

Roman pocketed his broken glasses and ran to catch up to Zexion and said, "No, that ain't it. Sheesh, give me some credit. This is the first time that we'll see what she can do in battle, right? It should be easy by my standards."

"Your standards," Zexion said. "What of hers?"

Roman didn't reply with a sentence, only a grunt. He pulled up his sleeve slightly to look at his wristwatch that he kept under it. 8:37 AM. "Oh, jeez. If she's training now, she may not be up to full speed. I got her a clock set to 8 AM, and 37 minutes isn't exactly what I call ample charge up time," Roman said.

"Everyone is different. We may lack hearts, but we still bear metabolisms. Eve's metabolism may be more than the credit you are giving her," Zexion said as the door to the Hall opened.

Roman was surprised to see that other Organization members had turned out to see the day's events. There were six of them: Axel, Luxord, Demyx, Roxas, Xion and Vexen. He walked over to Roxas and Xion first and asked, "What's all the commotion? Did Xigbar and Xaldin get into a fight or something?"

"Uh, no," Roxas said, pointing down.

Roman looked and saw Eve on the blue platform, without her robes as she has been for however long she has been like that. She was in her dress from the day before. Roman looked around for other spectators, Xemnas in particular, but no one else was found. He felt a tap on his shoulder and spun around to see an unfamiliar looking Nobody type. It looked like something of a humanoid and a lizard put together, but with very light brown skin and a zipper for a mouth. Like all the other Nobody types other than the Organization members, it lacked eyes. "What… the fuck?"

The Nobody held out its hand to reveal that it had been holding a pair of glasses. "Your replacement glasses, my liege."

Roman heard nothing, but the words appeared in his head without any warning. He reached into his pocket to take out the broken pair to ensure that they were different. Comparing the two, the pairs were practically identical, right down to the prescription on the glasses. The only difference was the amount of dirt to be seen, which was absent on the newer pair. Roman tossed the broken pair into the hole below the platform and took the newer pair, promptly putting them on. "Oh thank God, they're clean," he commented.

"Anytime, my liege," the Nobody "said," and it floated away in the usual fashion.

"What the hell was that…?" Roman asked before being shushed by Demyx.

Roman found an spot to stand and observe. Eve had gotten into a fighting position as Dusks began to materialize from the floor or the air above. She looked left and right to look at her first assailants. Six of them.

* * *

She recognized them as the "Dusks" that the boy from the day before pointed out. They were indeed stretchy and wobbly as he had demonstrated. One of them started to slither in mid-air towards her. With little thought, she brought her hand in a chopping fashion down on its head. A collective gasp from the spectators above with one or two exclaiming in excitement called out from above as they watched.

Eve found that not only did she shut her eyes in the process, but her hand felt… different. She couldn't exactly place it. She opened her eyes and saw not her hand, but what looked like a blade. The metal seemed to integrate into her arm, resulting in all of it up to her elbow being metal gray. [I envisioned a blade coming down on it…]

She envisioned her own hand, and the blade began to glow. It eventually melded back into her own hand, and her normal sensation was regained. She looked up and gasped as a stretchy arm shot out to hit her. Quickly thinking of a shield, she put her hands out to defend, and the two glowed and fused together. The Dusk's hand was met with a metal shield bearing the Nobody crest and was deflected, causing it to flutter about. She unfused her hands and formed her left into a blade which she cut the Dusk in half with. The right, she made into a fist and slammed into another Dusk. By that time, her hand had turned into a spiked ball.

Her hand remained a ball as the left reverted to normal. She swung her ball-fist around, catching nothing this time, but forcing the Dusks to retreat and group together. Three remaining. They separated and attacked from the front and sides, but Eve ducked, causing them to collide into each other. The three Dusks ended up in a tangled heap, vulnerable. Eve brought her hands together to form a hammer in the moment, which she brought down on them all, crushing them. She separated her hands once again, checking to see if any survived the attack, but she saw nothing.

There was clapping from the balcony above…

* * *

Roman turned around to see three of the strange lizardmen Nobodies near the wall, one of them clapping. It stopped and "said," "It is our turn now. I believe that this will be our final battle, but there are more of us, as you can guess."

"Wait… you're gonna what?" Roman asked.

The three Nobodies jumped over the spectators' heads and onto the platform, in front of Eve, who was facing away from the balcony. They assumed the same martial arts stance as Eve readied herself accordingly. "Hey! HEY! What's going on here?" Roman shouted at the Nobodies.

The small platform on the opposite side of the entire room was now occupied by Xigbar, who had apparently brought a bag of popcorn to the spectacle. "Seriously, what the fuck," Roman continued.

"I take it no one told you?" Xigbar called out.

"Wait, this is part of the trial?"

"Bingo. Besides, if you weren't going to sic 'em on her, Xemnas would have."

"That makes a whole lot of sense at the moment."

* * *

The "Nobodies" struck. They all flew at Eve with a palm strike which knocked her into an invisible barrier, even when she had made a shield of her hands. The impact knocked the wind out of her and took her mind off of keeping the shield intact, so it disintegrated back into her two hands. One of the three enemies dropped down on her with an axe kick aimed at her head, but she moved her head in time for it to narrowly miss hitting her. However, she was met with another grabbing her and throwing her into the center of the arena on her back.

"Aw, come on!" a voice called out from the balcony. "Was that seriously necessary?"

The creatures looked up as if to address the voice, but nothing else was heard. "Wait, master?" the voice asked.

Eve regained her balance and transformed her right hand into a blade again. She ran at the "Nobody" in the middle of the group and thrust it into its midsection. No one was expecting that, and whoops and various cheers came from the balcony. From there, Eve swung her blade-hand up to leave the enemy nearly in half before it exploded into a flurry of lights. The other two didn't seem at all affected by their fallen comrade, other than one attempting a flying knee directed at Eve's face.

She ducked from this attack and replied in kind with a right-hand upper slash, chopping off the tail of the attacker. She then used the same hand to stab the Nobody in the back with it twice. It hit the ground, then burst into lights. The remaining Nobody took the opportunity to deliver a palm strike directly to the side of Eve's face, sending her across the platform on her side. Various groans came from the balcony. Eve nursed the side of her face where the blow had connected as she saw the enemy rush towards her. She had just noticed that it had no eyes, and its mouth a closed zipper. She did not hesitate at the sight, as she formed a blade of her free, left hand and sliced vertically upwards as the Nobody was about to bring its own hand down on her in a chop. The attack made it stop in its tracks, as if frozen in time, before it slowly separated into two halves of an empty bag, of sorts before it dissolved like its comrades.

Eve straightened her posture and brushed back her hair with her normal hand as clapping came from the balcony above. She heard one of the spectators say, "Hot damn!"

She didn't reply to this. She instead turned to face Saix, who had recently walked in through one of the doors leading onto the platform. He looked down at the girl with his usual cold stare. "So that is what you are capable of on the battlefield," he said.

"Battlefield…" Eve repeated softly.

"Eve. Number Sixteen. The Maiden of Blades."

After he said that, a few small Nobodies materialized behind him. Two of them floated and stopped side-by-side a few feet from Eve and Saix, while one transformed itself into a sword. It hovered in front of Eve for a moment, spinning slowly, then drove itself into the floor inches from her feet. Without prompt, she took the Nobody-sword and drew it from the ground, holding it in front of her. She heard a voice in her head, saying, "We are now at your disposal, my lady. With time and training, we will come to your aid at your request."

The sword quickly shifted into a bird-like creature, with the other two following suit. The three of them soon flew out of the arena, leaving no trace save for the wound in the floor. "Very well," Saix said. "I will tell Lord Xemnas of this new development. Expect any day now to yield your first mission."

* * *

Is that what she can do?

Weird…

Why did I choose this girl, again? Did I intentionally choose her?

…

Rgh, I can't remember.

But that boy… is that really him?

I need to find out. I've already caused what I think are problems for this girl already. If he is him… then I know what I have to do.

That sticky note could have been just messing with me.

* * *

Eve sat on her bed, staring at the floor with drooping eyelids. She had the faint remembrance of:

She needed to thank someone for something. And,

What exactly was she thinking around this time last night… and how did she come to pick her clothes from her first day?

In all honestly, it was a blur now. She kept the dress and arm warmer, but she couldn't remember how she chose them. She looked at the ice cream stick they boy gave her. It still had "WINNER" on it. [Was I thinking of the WINNER stick?]

She lay down on the bed and pulled the covers over herself. The clock read 9:45 PM. [Something so small… it shouldn't have been easy to forget. And I still don't know the boy's name.]

* * *

[Journal Entry]

Roxas has brought up on one occasion some strange dreams. Some dude in red pants along with some orange-clad noob and a blue thing. Some sort of aircraft, he says. Maybe he's going through something like what I've got going for me?

Hard to say, but I don't know about his internal picture quality. Maybe it's really fuzzy and static infested. I know that my dreams are crystal clear. Speaking of which, that dream's still going. Same delays, same gunshots, same ending line. Something about that really gets me tense, I dunno what.

* * *

[New Nobody: Monk]

Fierce combatants in hand-to-hand. They have pledged absolute loyalty to Roman, so they are extremely hesitant in battle against him. Anyone else, the sanctions go away.

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- Accidental lie from last chapter's A/N's! Next chapter is the true intro, so don't hurt yourself with a held breath.

- The Monk Nobody design here is based off of the White Monk job class of Bangaa in the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance games.


	16. 15: First Mission

When Roman walked into the Grey Area, the first thing he noticed was something out of the corner of his eye. When he looked to his right, there was a man in a red hoodie. Roman barely remembered seeing something to that effect the day before, but perhaps he could blame his lack of glasses for not completely noticing the man. He opened his mouth to ask something before he was cut off. "Talk to your bird-headed friend."

"Uh… Roxas? I think you mean item-headed."

"Whatever."

Other than the man in red, there was the usual occupancy of Saix and Roxas. Today's supplements were Luxord, Xigbar and, to Roman's surprise, Eve. She was seated on one of the chairs to the right side of the room, with the others to the left. He figured that she would be the last one to talk to while he was still here, so he went to Roxas first. "So what' s with the bull enrager right over there?" he asked.

"Who, him? I think he's supposed to be a salesman, if I remember correctly," Roxas said.

"Then shouldn't he have more stuff on his person than a messenger bag?"

"Think Futurama," the man in red said.

The next Nobody was Luxord. "An impressive display the girl put on yesterday, am I right?" he asked.

"And then you talk about luck," Roman said in reply.

"True. Luck IS a part of skill, and she seems to have plenty of it. However, as we all know, luck can be kind or cruel."

"Like humanity, basically."

"Ah, a good point, my friend. So where does that leave us? Here is something to perhaps spur your thought processes further," Luxord said, handing Roman a blue, glowing gem.

[I fail to see how a Blizzard Gem is supposed to get my mind going,] Roman thought to himself as he walked over to Xigbar.

"Hey there. You hear the latest from the superior?"

"Erm… no."

"Word is that we're stepping up castle security around here. Hell, they've been doing that since that old freak flew around the Hall of Empty Melodies."

By "Old Freak," Roman thought of the man he personally fire-punched in the face. "I don't think the dude was old. His hair was just naturally silver. Besides, how many old people can achieve curly hair?"

"Heh, I dunno."

The next person was Saix. Normally, Roman would talk to Saix for his daily mission after talking to the other members who happened to be in the room, but he figured that he would get the mission first before talking to Eve. "I have an interesting assignment for you. In case you are wondering, it's the reason the girl is out here today," Saix said, handing Roman the mission specs.

Instead of reading the specs immediately, Roman folded the paper into fourths and pocketed them before walking to Eve, who was reading a paperback book. It didn't look like she had gotten far, only about a quarter of the way in. [How many books is that?] Roman thought to himself. [I bet Zexion would know, because he's been supervising her up to now. Maybe I'll ask him after today's mission.]

He took out the mission specs from his pocket and unfolded it, reading it over carefully. He didn't want to confuse the objectives for something else. He cocked his head back in surprise as he read it over again. [Show Eve an example of the missions we undertake. This example will be of defeating Heartless and collecting hearts. Ensure that she stays safe in the midst of it all, and do not spend too much time touring Twilight Town.]

"Really…" Roman said aloud after reading the mission specs.

He looked at Eve, who was still reading her book. "She doesn't look like she knows a thing about this."

At that moment, Saix walked toward her from his normal position in front of one of the windows. "He has received his mission, now for you," he said to her.

Eve looked up and behind her from her book at Saix. Both Nobodies stared at each other for a moment with somewhat cold eyes. Eve silently closed her book and stood up from her seat, walking to the spot where the dark corridor normally appears. Roman tracked the girl on her way, her dress as black as the usual Organization robes. In one of her pockets, something caught Roman's attention. It seemed like a piece of paper was sticking ever so slightly out. He squinted to get a better look, but had trouble detecting it past the distracting movement of her hair. It didn't move in front of her pocket, but it still diverted Roman's attention nonetheless. He tapped himself on the side of his head to regain focus on the piece of paper, now that Eve had stopped to read her own mission specs. It did look like a piece of paper, but not like that of the specs. More like… a book page.

"Number XV will escort you as you carry out your first mission. He will ensure that you will not come to much harm as you complete the task of defeating Heartless. Also, given his usual personality…" There was a slight hint of disdain for the last word. "He can show you around the world in which this mission will take place."

* * *

Eve looked at the boy standing about a meter away, giving a quizzical look to both her and Saix. [He gave me the clock,] she thought. [Was that his name on the note?]

Roman, so Eve thought, walked over to her, rolling his arm in anticipation of action. "I'm a mentor already? Damn, that was fast," he said.

"This is a mere trial run," Saix said to him. "Perform your duty well, and she will be in the care of you to Roxas."

Roman moved his head back in confusion. "As in me, Xion and Roxas showing her around worlds?"

Saix nodded silently. "Well, damn," Roman commented. "Big rewards for an easy job."

The dark corridor opened up at the motion of Saix's hand. The heads of Roman and Eve turned to face it, but neither Nobody made a move just yet. "You first."

Eve turned to face Roman. He only motioned towards the corridor. She turned because she was wondering why he was letting her go first. A mentor is a leader, so she expected Roman to go in first, but that doesn't seem to be so right at the moment. After a moment, Eve stepped through the portal.

Within the swirling vortex was the semi-familiar dark landscape. The black horizon with what looked like vortexes sucking in purple matter in the sky, far from herself. It was incredibly surreal to her, more surreal when she noticed a bright white in the distance. Roman soon walked into the dark realm, his hands in his pockets. "I know, right? You ever get to something regarding drugs yet?" he asked, referring to the landscape.

"Hallucinations. Things existing without existing. Moreso than us," she replied.

"Well, that's one way to put it. You know, this seems like something a human would see when on drugs. You know, without them actually being physically here."

He began to walk in the direction of the whiteness. "Other end is this way," he said, now with his hands on his head.

Eve followed suit, turning back to notice that the portal she had gone through seemed to undergo a change. It looked almost exactly like the original entrance, but white. However, it dissipated before she could get a good look, and it soon was out of sight. When it disappeared, Eve turned to face in front of her again, and resumed following Roman at full speed.

* * *

The two strangers emerged from the strange dark portal. It was the first time Tsuna had seen anything like it. Granted, he had heard strange things from Hayner and Pence, but now he himself would have something to say. Other than the usual talk of Mafia families and whatnot. And supposed ghost baby sightings.

Said ghost baby was actually part of the reason for Tsuna often trying to semi-solicit info about the Mafia from Hayner, Pence and Olette. With his current situation that can't be currently summarized just yet, he figured that these two hooded beings were bad news.

[Ugh, is Reborn even around here?] Tsuna thought to himself as he hid behind one of two columns holding up an ornate design common in Twilight Town. [These guys may be part of a new rival family! If they're here for me, and he isn't here, I'm so screwed!]

"This place is…" one of the figures asked.

"Yup. It's Twilight Town. I guess the higher ups figured, as most would, that the best place to start is the more docile fare. Still, that doesn't mean that there aren't Heartless. Hell, that's why we're here," the other said, turning to the first, a female.

"The Heartless."

"Exactly. Hey, check this out."

The male figure pulled a device out of his pocket. "I use this to keep track of how well a mission's going. See this bar here?"

Tsuna figured he had heard enough. He turned and quietly moved away from his hiding place, and down the sloped pathway. He always hated going down these inclines fast, because like now, he would trip and fall on his face, supported by comedic rolling down to the bottom.

* * *

"…Immensely helpful," Roman said, having just finished explaining the device's map function. "However, if you're having a bad day, it can actually mess you up a bit. That's why I prefer maps that rotate with you."

To support his statement, he moved the top half of his body, like a robot. Eve could feel a smile wanting to come to her face, but there was no such luck. She only nodded silently. "Well, let's get this thing underway, already. I'll tell you more about what I know about the place as we get to it," Roman said. "Let's mosey."

She had just been reminded of something. "Wait."

"Okay, I realize that sounded a little weird, but—"

"No, that's not it. Your name. Is it… Roman?"

He pulled his hood back. "Eh… whaddya mean by that?"

"The sticky note. On the clock. You're number XV, Roman?"

"The Fist of the Absent Star, yes."

Her eyes went unconsciously wide.

* * *

It… it's him! It's really him!

No, wait.

Any boy can be that way. I need more proof. The Roman I know was… was…

How do I put it…

* * *

"Yo, Eve? You okay?" Roman said, waving a hand in front of the girl's face.

She snapped out of a trance and brought a hand to her face. "Mmm… I'm fine," she said.

"Well, if you're okay, let's get this thing going, already! We've already built up enough steam!"

He ran off towards the arch. "Roman…"

She soon ran after him.

The next few hours were spent touring and battling. The things resembling ants were Shadows. The small-bell like creatures were things like Yellow Operas, Scarlet Tangos, and Grey Caprices. The flower creatures, Dire and Fire Plants. There were so many creatures, Eve would come to be thankful for the Enemy Profiles function on the device that Roman would eventually tell her about. In time, she and Roman would identify Shadows, Yellow Operas, Scarlet Tangos, Dire and Fire Plants, Possessors, Watchers, Soldiers and a Zip Slasher. Of all the Heartless, as Eve came to know them, the Zip Slasher was the most dangerous. In between battling and explaining hearts, Roman told Eve what he knew of Twilight Town.

She also found out other important factors in regards to missions. They must not be seen by anyone. They have to carry out their missions without anyone else catching notice of them. Also, defeating Heartless was only one of several types of tasks. There would be more, Roman warned, though he himself had more to discover for himself. On their exploration, they noticed a little alcove (by his definition) underneath the train tracks. It looked like it had been hung out in, as there was a dartboard set up with some darts in it, as well as a couple of arranged couches. There was even a sheet of sorts in front of the doorway, as if though to keep things secret from outsiders.

"A sort of club area, maybe?" Roman asked. "Maybe it's the local school students."

By the clock tower's reckoning, it was one o'clock by the time the mission was completed entirely, save for one tiny speck. "Ugh, this sucks," Roman commented.

"Why?" Eve asked.

"I always gun for 100% on missions, but the ones where I can't find that one last enemy suck ass. Ugh."

Eve remained silent. The two walked up the incline, walking past a cart with a rather large bag on it. "We're coming up to the Station Plaza, now. After every mission, we've gotta head back to the corridor and back to the castle. The actual terminology—ooh look, JUMP!"

Roman caught sight of a magazine set down on a nearby crate and picked it up. "As I was saying, the actual term for it is Return To the Castle, or RTC. As you can imagine, the corridor's up at the Plaza, where we started. Annoying, but we've gotta have SOME way of getting back, right?"

Eve nodded again. Roman stopped and turned. "You know, you haven't said a whole lot. I remember how Xion was with me when we first met. It drove me nuts, so if you ever pay any attention to our current interactions, I'm just returning the favor the other way around."

"Is it… just you?" Eve asked, quietly.

Roman let out a breath. "Fine, you go and say that…"

It wasn't long before they reached the Plaza. However, the corridor refused to open when they got there. Roman gave the spot where it was a few stomps. "Huh? This mission doesn't need total completion, does it?" Roman asked.

He checked his device. The info ticker at the top of it was more often than not reliable. "No, so what…?"

A large shadow loomed over the two Nobodies. At its chest, there was a hole in the shape of a heart. The two turned to face a giant humanoid creature, muscular and with tentacles acting as part of a hood, so to speak. "Oh shit, one of these things. I thought it was a Pureblood, though!" Roman exclaimed.

Before either could assume a fighting stance, a line of light went across the head. It jerked upwards, and the entire Darkside fell to its knees slowly. It then fell face forward, nearly hitting Eve and Roman on its way down, fading completely before it could completely hit the ground. "Okay. What?" Roman asked aloud, obviously confused as to what just happened.

It looked like another Organization member was there. A female with a Keyblade and her hood up. The Keyblade wasn't like what Roxas and Xion usually had, though. It was… different. Thinner. Darker "blade," as well. It seemed to be based off of some sort of mechanism for all Roman knew. "Xion?"

"Number XIV?" Eve asked to confirm.

"Yeah."

The unknown woman stood up and faced the two. "You… are Xion, right?" Roman asked.

The only reply was the woman swinging down her Keyblade, the chain swinging about as she did. "I will take that as a no…" Roman said, taking his fighting stance. In an aside to Eve, he added, "If help doesn't come, we're so screwed."

The battle was basic, yet the woman still seemed know what she was doing. She blocked some of the pair's attacks and countered with a thrust, though there was little defense for her when Eve was behind her when she blocked an attack, allowing Roman to plant a combo or Blaze Upper (as he had named it after the scooter incident) directly to the woman's back. One of the woman's main attacks was a two swing attack, vertical then horizontal. There was also a jumping strike that would threaten to knock either Eve or Roman down. Every now and then, when the Nobodies had distance from her, she would send along a pulse of light with her Keyblade along the ground, which would cause them to get knocked upwards if it hit. Eve was starting to get physically tired after some time, as well as Roman, and his possible asthma wasn't helping.

[That's it, I have to end this shit,] Roman thought.

The woman put up her defenses again to avoid being slashed by one of Eve's blade hands, allowing Roman to jump behind the former. With a swinging kick, Roman sent the woman flying to the side, though not knocking her down. After the blow, she stood up normally, the Keyblade still in hand. It was clear that she wasn't really breaking a sweat, as opposed to Roman and Eve, who were panting. With a motion of her free hand, what looked like a light corridor opened up. Roman was surprised by its appearance, not making a move to stop the woman from stepping in. "What was all that about?" he asked.

Eve remained silent as both her hands reverted to their original forms. Behind them, their corridor, the dark one, opened. "Oh, so now it opens?" Roman said sarcastically. "Ass thing."

"Wait."

"What is it now?"

Eve paused for a bit. "Once again… is your name, or is your name… not Roman?"

"Why is it such a big deal to you? I kick ass, I somehow look good in these robes that I personally don't want you to be seen with, how much more 'Roman' could I get?"

"So… you are…"

"Hey, Eve? You're beginning to space out again. Eve? Yo Eve?"

She shook out of it again. "I'm sorry."

"Well, let's RTC and report this to Saix. If I've been keeping up with local castle news, we've got another damn imposter running around. Besides, we've gotta get back here later for a special little something."

"Okay… but please, you first."

* * *

"You sure it was a good idea… doing that?"

"I had to make sure they were with them. It could have been the others," the woman replied.

Riku leaned against the wall of the tower, in the same robes as the woman. "What about Sora, then?" he asked.

"He should be fine if we keep doing what we're doing." The woman added, "While we have free time, let me ask something. Why did you blindfold yourself?"

Riku turned to face her, his eyes obscured by the blindfold mentioned. "I do what I can… to keep the darkness contained. I pursue the light by trying to look past the darkness, and I use the darkness to see in the light."

"I see."

The woman turned to walk off, but hesitated slightly to grip her side. "Who were they?" Riku asked.

She turned to face him, letting her side go. "I don't know… but they seemed to think me as someone else when they saw me. Perhaps…" She summoned the Keyblade to her hand. "It was this?"

Riku said nothing.

* * *

As it turned out, Roxas was the only one up on the tower before the others in the usual tower fare. "Huh? Oh, hey Roman."

"'Sup, dude?"

"Eh, the same Heartless mission. By the way, how are you doing… Eve?"

He seemed reluctant to say her name. Roman gave her a quizzical look as she took a seat next to him against the wall. "Oh come on, you're not suggesting Vexen pulled a fast one on Xemnas and Saix, are ya?"

"Hey! Shut up!" Roxas retorted defensively.

Roman laughed as they playfully pushed each other. "You guys look like you're having fun," Xion said, a bag of ice creams in her hand.

Roman turned to face her and saw the bag. His mouth formed an O. "Ah crap, I forgot! Thanks a million, Xion," he said.

"And how's our new rookie?" Axel asked, taking his seat next to Roxas.

Eve brought the book from earlier in the morning with her. She was too absorbed in it to reply. "Did Zexion do that?" Axel asked.

Roman only shrugged.

There were five of them up on the tower. Roxas, Xion, Axel, Roman and Eve. Four sea salts, one vanilla. Eve actually put her book down for her ice cream. However, she found herself confused when she finished it. "I think it's limit one WINNER stick per person," Axel commented.

Four of them joked around, talking about the universe, about other possible worlds. Eve only listened. She hadn't bothered to get back to her book yet. She listened in particular to Roman. His words often got caught in his mouth, and sometimes were transposed with others by pure accident, and often confused himself in correction. When she listened to him further, especially when he started to complain about his amnesia… all noise faded away. She only thing she could hear was Roman, yet he was distorted and soft. She put a hand to the side of her head, as she began to get headache from the events.

* * *

It… it….

It….

…

Now have to.

I'll lose myself. I'll lose myself to her. But she'll remember me, right?

She'll remember me for him.

I'll become her.

…

I won't be myself again.

But I have to.

Roman… I'm coming… She'll make things right with you again…

I'm sorry I did what I did.

I was protecting you. And I'm sorry.

Now…

"Oh, dude—Eve!"

* * *

She was gripping her head with one hand, and her chest with the other. She seemed to be having an immense headache and some sort of pain in her chest. She cried out and whimpered softly. "He… help me…"

"Axel, what's going on?" Roman asked.

"How should any of us know?"

She was swinging her head back and forth now, crying out louder, now with both hands clutching at her chest. "Aw man, we gotta get her down to ground level, now!" Roman exclaimed, helping Eve up as she cried out an octave louder.

As quickly as they could, they descended down the stairs from the tower to the Plaza, where the corridor Axel opened up awaited. Eve was crying out louder now, clutching at her chest more tightly, and tears of pain streaming down her eyes.

"Man, what is happening!" Roman yelled out to the others as Eve fell to her knees, screaming.

She kept screaming, clutching at her chest to the point of her knuckles turning white, and falling on her side, curling up in an effort to assuage the pain. Roxas and Xion propped her up again to standing as the five passed into the corridor with Axel motioning them in. They passed through the dark space back into the castle, but not into the Grey Area. Axel had redirected the corridor directly into Eve's room. Roman sat down with Eve on the bed, crying loudly and hunching over. "My God, it hurts!" Eve cried out.

"Hey, lie down," Roman suggested, "That should help, right?"

Xion and Roxas eased Eve down onto her bed, sobbing now. None of them figured that she could do that, so something else was at play. Eve's screams and cries calmed down some upon laying down as Saix walked in through the automatic doors. Before he could get a chance to demand what was going on, Roman manually pushed him out the door. "Mindloss in progress here; get the hell out!"

When Saix was gone, Eve was left gasping for breath, still with a hand to her chest. "Gah… hah…"

"Okay, seriously. What the hell just happened?" Roman asked, addressing pretty much everyone there.

"Don't look at me," Roxas said.

Xion only looked at Roman while Axel shrugged. Eve was now taking in deep breaths, her eyes closed shut. "Hey, are you okay now?" Roman asked tentatively.

Eve opened her eyes to let more tears stream down. She nodded slowly. "Mm-hm. Oh, God…" she replied softly, a hand still to her chest.

"It-it should subside by tomorrow, right?"

Axel only shrugged again, looking away as well. "Can't say. This is the first time I've seen this happen."

"Do you think Vexen had anything to do with it?" Roxas asked.

Xion covered her mouth in thought. "You know, some woman dressed in Organization robes jumped Eve and I when we got to the corridor the first time. You think that has anything to do with it?"

"Possibly. What did she use?"

"Get this; she used a Keyblade."

"A what?" Roxas and Xion asked in unison.

Their faces were objects of surprise.

"Yeah, an actual Keyblade as far as I can tell."

"So there's even more imposters out there…" Axel said, looking down at the floor.

"Seems like it. Vexen doesn't seem to be good enough for this."

"Well, we should keep it between us," Roxas said. "At least as far as Eve right now. We can inform Saix about the imposter, but we should leave out Eve's condition."

"Yeah. We can probably just say that Vexen tried something, and it had side effects."

"That sounds about good," Xion said.

All four of them nodded in agreement. Xion, Roxas and Axel left, leaving Roman with Eve, who had regulated her breathing by now. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked.

Eve only stared into his eyes from underneath her blanket. The clock on her night stand read 8:59 PM. He had forgotten that time laws aren't exactly on par in some worlds with others. "Get some rest, then. You probably have a mission tomorrow, so you'll want to be prepared."

He walked out of the room, where Eve promptly fell asleep as soon as he went out of sight.

* * *

The same dream. The same delays, now with add-ons. The girl's voice is more clear, as well as the boy. The dude sounds really familiar. And nearby. Jeez, how close is he?

Wait… a sparkly thing? Two, and—holy crap, that one's close. Like, I could reach out and touch that shit.

…

Okay, the action starts.

Shot 1.

Shot 2.

Line.

Shot 3.

Shot 4.

This is going to get real repetitive, real fast.

* * *

This platform… it's so bright. Everything else is pure black.

Is there anything else here? Anyone else? Hello?

! Birds?

…Huh? Stained glass? Is that… me? It looks like I'm resting.

There's nothing else, either. There's only me. What's this trying to say?

* * *

[Author's Notes]

- I'll have to start a new fanfic on the site, because the story moves away from Artifice at this point. It'll be **Kingdom Hearts – Memorial**, so keep a sharp eye out for it. It just continues the story, so I'm not halting things in their tracks.


End file.
